Hundreds of members of the Compostela Farmers Association stage a motorcade to escort the caravan of Manilakbayan participants as they cross the province to Agusan del Sur on their way to Metro Manila to press the government to address the continuing plight of lumad and peasant communities in Mindanao. (contributed photo)
More than 700 lumad, peasant and human rights activists from different Mindanao regions have crossed to the Visayas for the next leg of the third Manilakbayan ng Mindanao, which will see them heading to Metro Manila to press the government to address their continuing plight.
The long trek, in its third year, comes amid the continuing displacement of thousands of lumad this year following atrocities, including murders and massacres, and the militarization of their communities and tribal schools.
After boarding a boat from Surigao City Wednesday night, the Manilakbayan participants are expected to reach Tacloban on Thursday and make their way from there across Eastern Visayas before crossing over to Luzon.
The Manilakbayan participants, among them relatives of recently murdered lumad, are expected to reach Metro Manila on the weekend, where they will stay for a month undertaking various activities to highlight their issues.
In Surigao del Sur alone, more than 4,000 lumad have fled their homes, the bulk of them following the September 1 murders of Emerito Samarca, executive director of the Alternative Learning Center for Agricultural and Livelihood Development, and Manobo leaders Dionel Santos and Datu Bello Sinzo by the Magahat militia in Lianga town.
Although the Army has denied anything to do with the militias, which Surigao del Sur Governor Johnny Pimentel insists were organized and armed by the military, it has admitted that soldiers were present and witnessed the Lianga killings but did nothing, for which a junior officer is reportedly to face court martial.
The refugee agency and human rights experts of the United Nations have joined the widespread condemnation of the atrocities committed against the lumad and calls for the prosecution of the perpetrators and for independent probes.
However, the government has said it will not invite UN special rapporteurs to visit the country and investigate the plight of the lumad.
“As the Aquino regime nears its end, we ought to show to the entire country and the world that the people of Mindanao have not benefited from the claims of peace and development flouted by the counterinsurgency program Oplan Bayanihan of the Aquino administration,” Jhong Monzon, spokesperson of PASAKA, the Confederation of Lumad Organizations in Southern Mindanao, said.
Among the Manilakbayan participants’ demands is the pullout of troops and militias from their communities and schools. UN experts, notably special rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons Chaloka Beyani, who visited the country in late July, have agreed that the presence of soldiers and militias have driven lumad to flee their communities.
Hanimay Suazo, secretary general of the Southern Mindanao branch of the human rights group Karapatan, said Southern Mindanao has remained the main focus of the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ counterinsurgency campaign since the time of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, mainly because of the continued resistance to the entry of large-scale mining, logging and agriculture operations into lumad ancestral lands and farming communities.
Suazo said there are currently 60 combat battalions to Mindanao, “not including the auxiliary units and other paramilitary groups.”
http://www.interaksyon.com/article/119279/manilakbayan-heads-to-visayas
This is Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) front group agitation-propaganda activity. PASAKA and KARAPATAN are both CPP front groups.
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