The Kabataan Partylist in Northern Mindanao Region (KP-NMR)
on Tuesday described the burning of four houses in the village of White Kulaman
in Kitaotao, Bukidnon last Friday as “demonic act.”
The militant KP-NMR in the region has tagged the military as
responsible in the burning of the four houses of Indigenous People (IP) in the
hinterland of Malinao in the village
of While Kulaman .
The perpetrators are now heading to Mindanao Interfaith
Services Foundation Inc. (MISFI) to burn down the school, said Vennel Francis
Chenfoo, coordinator of the KP-NMR.
Felipe Cabugnason, a village chief of White Culaman issued a
memorandum last week ordering the closure of MISFI Academy
saying that it lacks legal documents, such as a permit to operate.
The school is a “threat to the safety of the IPs living in
the village because of their supposed links to the communist New People’s Army
and that the lumber used to build the school remained unpaid.
“Local leaders are now mobilized by the state against Lumad
schools at the instigation of the Armed Forces of the Philippines , which has the same pattern with the
increase cases of Lumad killings all over Mindanao .”
Chenfoo said.
The KP-NMR strongly denounced the state and its armed forces
in perpetrating the attacks of Lumad communities and of their schools.
He said that the rising cases of human rights violation
against the Lumad only show that the state continues its relentless suppression
against the people.
Militarization is not the solution, but rather, it would
only worsen the devastating plight of the Lumad, Chenfoo said.
He said that the militant KP-NMR is calling for the pull out
all the military troops in IP communities and schools since “militarization” is
not the solution but contributes to the worsening plight of the IP communities.
In a statement, the military has denied any knowledge of the
burning of the houses in While Kulaman saying that the army soldiers were in their
barracks in the village center when the incident supposedly occurred.
Cabugnason, the village chief, belied the allegations that
the soldiers are the ones responsible for the burning of houses in Sitio
Malinao.
Last month, the military and police armed with a search
warrant raided a house in the area believed an explosive factory of the
communist guerillas, which rendered an “arm cache” that includes war materiel
for assembling improvised explosive devices (IED).
http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=2&sid=&nid=2&rid=811992
Kabataan (Youth) Partylist is a CPP-linked political front with chapters active throughout the country. Kabataan is a member of the CPP-associated MAKABAYAN political coalition.
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