Hanimay Suazo, secretary general of the group Karapatan-SMR (File photo)
At least 500 human rights advocates joined on Tuesday, February 23, a two-day national fact-finding mission to probe the incidents of alleged military attacks on farmers and small-scale miners in Pantukan, Compostela Valley province.
The probe comes after the killings of an anti-activist local official and a small-scale miner, while a 14-year old boy was wounded. However, the military claimed that the boy is a New People’s Army “child warrior” whom they have “rescued”.
The victims include Teresita Navacilla, a purok chair and convener of the Save Pantukan Movement who was shot in her store last January 27 and died at the hospital on January 30; and Ronel Paas, a small-scale miner who was shot in the chest in a case of indiscriminate firing by soldiers in their village last February 9.
The small scale miner was also reported as an NPA member killed in an encounter.
“We would be looking into the links of the entry of a large-scale mining to the deployment of soldiers to the community,” said Suazo.
http://davaotoday.com/main/todays-news-to-go/pantukan-human-rights-violation-probe-begins/
KARAPATAN is the main Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) human rights umbrella front organization with chapters active throughout the Philippines. The Save Pantukan Movement is yet another suspected local CPP front group.
ReplyDeleteThe two-day National Humanitarian and Peace Mission being held in Barangay Napnapan in Pantukan is nothing more than a communist propaganda moro-moro (staged play) designed to alter the reality of transpired events in order to discredit the Philippine government and military on human rights issues. Thus legitimate encounters between the military and New People's Army (NPA) insurgents become blatant "incidents of alleged military attacks on farmers and small-scale miners" or are characterized as cases of "indiscriminate firing by soldiers."