About 50 tribal families had evacuated to the provincial
capitol grounds in Malaybalay, Bukidnon for fear of a tribal war, a report
reaching here said Tuesday.
The members of the tribal community fled their homes
following the attack of a wedding rite in the village
of Kawayan , San Fernando
The tribal community abandoned their homes for fear of a
tribal war in the area after the suspects had remained at large, Datu Jimboy
Mandagit said.
A certain Aldie “Butsoy” Salusad, of the New Indigenous
People’s Army for Reform (NIPAR), and his armed group reportedly strafed the
tribal community while celebrating a wedding ceremony in the farm village
Tibugawan, Kawayan last Saturday morning.
The Bukidnon police has temporarily stopped the
investigation after the tribal leaders requested that the tribal community
first resolve the conflict in accordance with tribe’s tradition and customs.
Mandagit said that the tribal community has expressed the
fear since Salusad and his men had remained at large and that the armed group
might terrorize the tribal community again.
“We are appealing to Gov. Jose Zubiri to intercede in behalf
of the tribal community in order to avoid further bloodshed in the future,”
Mandagit said.
http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=2&sid=&nid=2&rid=909834
Aldie “Butsoy” Salusad, of the New Indigenous People’s Army for Reform (NIPAR), is a former member of the New People's Army (NPA), the military wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). Salusad and his group reportedly have close ties to Philippine military units operating in the area.
ReplyDeleteThe lumads who were attacked appear to have a cozy relationship with known CPP lumad-oriented front organizations.
These tit-for-tat clashes between pro-CPP/NPA and anti-CPP/NPA lumad forces are characteristic of the civil-war-like environment that exists in the lumad areas of Northern and Eastern Mindanao.
The violence is fueled in large part by access to resources generated by mining operations and by NPA insurgency and Philippine military counterinsurgency operations in these lumad areas.