Lumad decry airborne 'abduction' of 14 in Bukidnon but military says operation targeted 'NPA'

From InterAksyon (Aug 28): Lumad decry airborne 'abduction' of 14 in Bukidnon but military says operation targeted 'NPA'

Indigenous people’s organizations in Bukidnon decried what they called the “abduction” of 14 of their leaders and members from a hinterland village of Kitao-tao town even as northern Mindanao media reported a massive military operation that netted suspected members of the New People’s Army.

A statement from the Kahugpongan sa Mag-uuma sa Kitao-tao (KMK, Kitao-tao Farmers’ Organization) said the military has also threatened to burn down the tribal school and a health center run by the Mindanao Interfaith Services Foundation Inc. in Barangay White Culaman.

Controversy has hounded the tribal schools, mostly set up and run by religious groups in lumad communities that used to have no access to basic education, which the military and even some local education officials have accused of advocating support for communist rebels.

Recent incidents of lumad evacuations, including hundreds of Manobo from Davao del Norte and Bukidnon who have sought refuge at a Protestant church in Davao City, have been blamed on the military’s occupation of their communities and tribal schools, a fact noted by United Nations special rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons Chaloka Beyani when he visited the country last month.

The military has maintained the refugees are “manipulated” and victims of “trafficking,” even using excerpts from Beyani’s exit brief for security officials to bolster its claims but earning a sharp rebuke from the UN expert who called the move a “gross distortion” of his observations.

But Colonel Jesse Alvarez, commander of the Army’s 403rd Infantry Brigade, was quoted in news reports as saying the “law enforcement operation,” which involved around 200 soldiers and police personnel, was covered by a search warrant issued by a regional trial court and, aside from the alleged rebels, also led to the seizure of “sacks” of weapons and improvised explosive devices.

The suspects were flown by helicopter to the headquarters of the 8th Infantry Battalion in Maramag town, the military said.

The reports also quoted a government prosecutor and a freelance journalist who the military brought along as saying the operation was in order and people’s rights were respected.

But KMK claimed the purported evidence had been “planted” by hundreds of soldiers from the 8th and 23rd IBs who, it said, had arrived and deployed to the White Culaman sitios of Midsayap, Dibisyon, Hindangan, Sagasaan Malinaw, Dao and Poblacion on August 22.

On the evening of August 25, the organization said, troops occupied the barangay hall, health center and stage and, early the next day began searching houses and rounding up the suspects who KMK identified as its chairperson, Elen Manlibaas; Camilo Asunan, council member of the lumad organization Tinananon Kulamanon Lumadnong Panaghiusa sa Arakan; Rudolfo Tambog, council member of the Nagkahiusang Mag-uuma sa Barangay White Culaman; and members of the organizations Felizardo Labadan, Jun Pillisar, Noyda Manlumaray, Lolok Manlipay, Selmo Manlumaray, Ariel Manlumaray, Josie Labaninay,  Lucenio Labadan, Ar-ar Manlumaray, Dieno Manlibaas and Loling Maasin. 

KMK said the hands of the 14, who included a few minors, were bound with plastic twine and they were detained overnight at the daycare center before being flown out on Thursday as the military called a village assembly. It was during the assembly, the group said, that the alleged plan to torch the school and health center was supposedly raised. 

http://www.interaksyon.com/article/116732/lumad-decry-airborne-abduction-of-14-in-bukidnon-but-military-says-operation-targeted-npa