Burning of 4 houses in Bukidnon, a ‘demonic act’

From the Philippine News Agency (Oct 6): Burning of 4 houses in Bukidnon, a ‘demonic act’

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