A lumad woman and her child sleep on cardboard sheets in the bleachers of the sports center in Tandag City, Surigao del Sur. (photo by Kilab Multimedia)
(UPDATE 2 - 2:14 p.m.) A Senate inquiry into the spate of atrocities that has driven thousands of lumad from their hinterland communities opened in
Senate Blue Ribbon committee chairman Teofisto Guingona II
arrived here with Senators Aquilino Pimentel III and Paolo Benigno Aquino IV to
preside over the two-day probe.
"We are here because we want to know the truth,"
Guingona told refugees at the sports center in Tandag, which he visited before
the start of Thursday's hearing, accompanied by Surigao del Sur Governor Johnny
Pimentel and Major General Oscar Lactao, commander of the 4th Infantry
Division, whose troops have been implicated in the abuses.
"We need to get the basics: what happened and who did
it. We need to do this in order for us to give justice to our lumad brothers
and sisters," he added. "I expect the people here to tell me what
happened, I expect them to tell me the truth. And because of that, we can
arrive at a proper recommendation as to what our next step should be."
Guingona, who like his fellow senator Pimentel is a native
of Mindanao, initiated the inquiry after being apprised of the problem by
Surigao del
He earlier condemned the atrocities, particularly the
September 1 murders of Emerito Samarca, executive director of the Altenative Learning Center
Governor Pimentel, who has demanded that the Army
"disarm, disband or kill" the militias he said the military has
organized in the province, said he was happy with the Senate probe and hoped it
would lead the national government to take action and resolve the problem
besetting the province.
Meanwhile, the refugees in Tandag rejected an offer made by
Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman during a September 26 visit to provide
them with "transitory shelters."
“We don’t want transition shelter, we want the disbanding of
the paramilitary bandits, the arrest of Bobby and Loloy Tejero, and Garito
Layno," the named suspects in the Lianga murders, "members of the
bandit group Bocales-Belandres-Egua,” and the pullout of the 75th and 36th
Infantry Battalions from their ancesral land, Josephine Pagalan, spokesperson
of the lumad federation KASALU, said.
Pagalan scored Soliman for misreading their plight and
wanting to treat them like the survivors of super typhoon Yolanda.
"We are not homeless. We have houses, farms and
livelihood in our villages," she said.
“Once the military-armed bandits are disbanded, the killers
arrested and prosecuted, and the military withdraws from our communities, the
... Aquino administration need not spend government money to build temporary
shelters because we will no longer be in evacuation” Pagalan added.
http://www.interaksyon.com/article/118294/senate-probe-into-abuses-against-lumad-opens-in-tandag-surigao-del-sur
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