NOT JUST THE LUMAD | Rights groups say Cagayan Valley IPs also suffering from military abuses

From InterAksyon (Sep 26): NOT JUST THE LUMAD | Rights groups say Cagayan Valley IPs also suffering from military abuses

 

 

The killings, forced evacuations and other atrocities suffered by Mindanao’s lumad have been hogging the headlines for weeks but human rights groups say indigenous people in the Cagayan Valley have also been suffering from alleged abuses by the military since 2006.

A report prepared by the Cagayan chapter of the human rights group Karapatan on a recent fact-finding mission in the Zinundungan Valley showed the abuses endured by the Malaweg, Aggay and Kalinga communities in the area have worsened and intensified since January this year.

The report documented the harassment, torture and summary executions of IP leaders as well as officers of the Timpuyog Dagiti Mannalon nga Aggay, or TDMA, allegedly by troops of the Army’s 17th Infantry Battalion, which is under the 5th Infantry Division.  

The scale of the abuses, the report said, “approaches the bloody level of human rights abuses committed against the indigenous lumad of Mindanao.”

Residents said the military increased its presence in the Zinundungan Valley after the New People’s Army captured and punished military intelligence agents and a member of the Citizens Armed Forces Geographical Unit.

“The civilians have become the targets for revenge by the 17th IB after the NPA-Danilo Ben Command imposed the death penalty on the two military intelligence operatives of the 17th IB and their CAFGU asset,” the report said.

Citing a statement from the NPA unit’s spokesman, it said the intelligence agents were found to have “linked farmers and their legitimate organizations with the NPA. The NPA secured the hit list prepared by the military agents. All of those listed ended up in the ‘Order of Battle’ of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, with some of them killed or disappeared.”

Aside from Karapatan and TDMA, the mission was joined by other people’s organizations, religious and officials of Barangays Masi, San Juan and Bural in Rizal town.

Residents of the valley told the mission, held September 16 to 19, that they have been struggling for land, resources and their lives and demanding that government provide them basic services since the 1970s.

“Whenever we triumph in making our lives better, the military comes to suppress us and violate our human rights,” they said.

In 2006, they said, San Juan Sangguniang Kabataan chairman Nelson Azucena was murdered by the military. In July 2011, Vicente Agbayani, a member of the Aggay tribe, was tortured and then slapped with trumped-up charges. And in 2013, troops of the 21st Infantry Battalion killed farmer-leader Ronald Beran.

“Every year, the list of those murdered, arrested, kidnapped and tortured lengthens, along with other forms of human rights violations. Until now, justice has not been rendered to the victims,” the residents said.

The mission documented human rights violations allegedly committed by the 17th IB against know farmer-leaders and residents in Barangays Masi, Bural and San Juan in Rizal, and in Barangay Lipatan, Sto. Nino.

Among the other human rights violations blamed on the 17th IB that the mission documented were:

Kidnapping, illegal arrest and torture of Aggay leader Mendo Bisiotan and fellow Aggay Marlon Baganay and the elderly Orlando Duruin in Sitio Daligan, Barangay San Juan in the early morning of July 20, 2015. The three were tied with a rope and paraded before barangay residents before disappearing for three days and presented to the media after they were charged with illegal possession of firearms and explosives and rebellion.

Harassment, intimidation and threats to the lives of farmer-leaders, among them Steward Garon of Barangay Masi, Eling Azucena of Barangay Bural, Rafael Guimay of Barangay Masi and MFA, Felipe Bisiotan of Barangay San Juan,  Ambona Batolan of Barangay Masi and TDMA, as well as Aris Infante, Raul Ladino, Lina Ladino and Edward Callueng of Barangay Lipatan and LFO.

Filing of trumped-charges like three counts of kidnapping with homicide against civilians Boy Garon, Jun-Jun Bayaua, Rexon Batulan, Rafael Guimay, Mario Gregorio, Elyong Balisi, Isot Simangan, Rowena Battad, Celso Manglallan, Titing Baloran, Eling Asucena and Rogel Asucena.

Violations of Aggay human rights like the illegal search and ransacking of five houses while the farmers were sleeping, threatening civilians with high-powered firearms as they were being interrogated, accusing everyone with membership in the NPA, theft of air guns used by residents for hunting game, pots, lighters and household items, and destroying crops, throwing away palay, monggo and corn after they forced the people to scamper away by firing their guns.

Abuse of the rights of women and children, with the wife of Mendo Bisiotan being kicked by soldiers after she came to help her husband who was being tortured and forced to admit that he was an NPA member and the son of Marlon Baganay being held by the collar and thrown out of a military vehicle as he tried to join his father, whom the troopers brought to a camp.

Establishment of camps by the 17th IB in barangay halls, health centers and private houses in Barangay Masi, San Juan and Bural.

Deployment of members of the Peace and Development Teams in the centers of Barangays Masi, Bural and San Juan to act as psywar (psychological warfare) units in the villages, with troops watching all the residents whom they also barred from congregating, with menfolk being subjected to intense surveillance.

Protection of Boog Bisiotan, known to the residents as a “criminal on the loose” who also poses as a “rebel-returnee” accused of raping and killing his own aunt, Toyang Bisiotan Cepedan, and acting as a spy and guide for the military in Zinundungan Valley.

Intensified military operations have spread terror, threats and peril to the people of the valley.

http://www.interaksyon.com/article/118028/not-just-the-lumad--rights-groups-say-cagayan-valley-ips-also-suffering-from-military-abuses