Surigao del Sur Governor Johnny Pimentel (image from http://tesdacaraga.blogspot.com/)
The only way to end the recurring cycle of death and evacuation plaguing the lumad is to “disarm, disband or kill” the Magahat-Bagani militia that has been committing atrocities against their fellow tribesfolk, Surigao del Sur Governor Johnny Pimentel said Wednesday.
In fact, he said, he is willing to raise bounties for the
heads -- literally -- of militia leaders.
Describing the situation in his province, an incensed
Pimentel, in a phone interview with InterAksyon.com, said: “There is a serious
breakdown of law and order because these people (militias) think they’re above
the law.”
He also scored the military for denying responsibility for
organizing and arming the militia, “when it is very clear they are under the
control and supervision of the Army” and “can even be seen inside their camps.”
He added that the militias are well armed with weapons such
as Baby Armalites and Bushmasters. “Where would they get these weapons if not
the military?” he said. “If you trace their serial numbers, I am sure you will
find these in their inventory. Hasta kita, tontohon nila (They are
trying to fool even us).”
Close to 3,000 evacuees, mostly Manobo from the hinterlands
of five Surigao del Sur towns, have fled to the provincial capital Tandag City
and have sought shelter at the sports stadium following a wave of atrocities
since last month blamed by the refugees and Pimentel himself on the militias.
The evacuations started in San Miguel town, where Magahat
gunmen threatened residents and teachers of a tribal school in Barangay Bolhoon
in early August and, on the 28th of that month, allegedly murdered brothers
Crisanto and Ellie Tabogol in Barangay Siagao.
But the exodus turned into a veritable flood after the
September 1 murders, also by the Magahat, of Emerito Samarca,
executive director of the Alternative Learning Center for Agricultural and
Livelihood Development or ALCADEV, an award-winning tribal school, and two
Manobo leaders, Dionel Campos, chairman of the Malahutayong Pakigbisog
Alang Sa Sumusunod or MAPASU, and Datu Juvillo “Bello” Sinzo, in
Han-ayan, the last two executed in front of hundreds of residents, in Barangay
Diatogon in Lianga town.
While he stopped short of accusing the Army of condoning the
atrocities, saying, “they will never admit to that,” Pimentel recalled that
after the killing of the Tabogol brothers, whom he called “mga inosente
(innocents),” he met with the military and “appealed” to Colonel Oscar
Purisima, commander of the 402nd Infantry Brigade, “to apprehend, disarm or do
whatever they needed to do because there would be more people killed if they
did not act.”
“Less than 24 hours after” his worst fears came true in
Han-ayan and yet, “up to now there is no action” on the Army’s part, he said,
adding that in the case of the Lianga killings, “the Army was only a kilometer
away and yet they did nothing.”
Residents of Han-ayan in fact have said that soldiers had
occupied their village before the Magahat arrived.
Asked why the military and the militias appeared to be
targeting lumad communities and the schools set up in their remote
villages, Pimentel said, “Because they are suspected of being communist
sympathizers and the schools of being ‘NPA’ (New People’s Army) schools. But it
is not true. These are poor people, innocent people.”
Pimentel said the vicious cycle of attacks and evacuations
“has been going on for the last six years. Last year, they killed (MAPASU
officer) Henry Alameda, triggering an evacuation. And in the previous years it
has been the same. Every year we have two to three evacuations. And it is the
same people they are targeting and who flee.”
“Naubsan na kog laway (I have run out of spit)”
urging the Army to disband the militias, Pimentel said. “Kalisod sa ila,
gihimo nila (The difficult thing with them is they created a) monster,
and now they are out of control so hugas kamay sila (they wash their hands
of the problem).”
A frustrated Pimentel said, “if I am authorized and they
give me 100 guns, I myself will raise a force to go after these militias” who,
he pointed out, are spread throughout his province.
“I’m willing to give a reward, even with my own money … to
kill them,” naming the brothers Bobby and Loloy Tejero, allegedly among those
who executed Campos and Sinzo, for whom the governor said he would pay
“P300,000 each,” and “P500,000 for Marcos Bocales.”
Bocales is among those against whom multiple murder and
other criminal charges have been filed for the Lianga killings.
“I am calling the attention of the national leadership,”
Pimentel said. “At our level we cannot solve this. The only solution is to
disband the Bagani and it is very clear they are under the control and
supervision of the Army.”
Until this is done, he said, “there will be more killings, I
am telling you.”
http://www.interaksyon.com/article/117271/the-only-way-to-peace--disarm-disband-or-kill-the-bagani---surigao-del-sur-governor
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