FOURTEEN farmers
were allegedly taken forcibly by members of the 8th and 23rd Infantry Battalion
of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) from their community and were
brought to their camp in Maramag, Bukidnon on a helicopter last August 27, said
a spokesperson of a farmer’s organization.
Kahugpongan sa
Mag-uuma sa Kitaotao spokesperson Isidro Indao said in a phone interview with
Sun.Star Davao on Sunday that the 14 people who were taken by the soldiers by
force were accused by AFP as members of the New People’s Army (NPA).
Another reason
might also have something to do with the involvement of these people in
fighting for the rights of the farmers in their community in Barangay White
Kulaman, Kitaotao, Bukidnon.
Some of these
people taken by the soldiers were identified as Nagkahiusang Mag-uuma sa Barangay
White Kulaman (Namabaw) and Tikulpa leaders Ellen Manlimbaas, Felizardo
Labadan, Editha Bontao, Jun Pellazar, Camilo Asunan, Noeda Manlumaray, and
Ariel Malumaray. The rest are still unidentified.
Another reason
for taking them is that they are also protecting the farmer’s lands in their
community from capitalists who are trying to penetrate in their area, Indao
said.
Indao added that
the AFP did not show any legal documents when they took the said people to
their camp. There were only 13 left at the soldier’s camp since one of them,
Josie Labaninay, was released because she is nursing her small child.
Indao said the
AFP is causing troubles to the farmers’ daily source of income by taking
control at their community and preventing them from working on their fields
because they were suspected to be meeting the NPAs.
He said they had
sought the help of support groups, church people, and the media regarding this
incident, adding that a support group responded by conducting a fact-finding
mission to document the alleged violations done by the AFP, but the soldiers
prevented them from coming there.
Local Communist Party of the Philippines front organizations continue with their propaganda effort to discredit the Philippine military operations in the vicinity of Barangay White Kulaman, Kitaotao, Bukidnon and gain the release of detained front group members.
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