From the Sun Star-Davao (Sep 24): 'Army has control over paramilitary groups'
A PARTYLIST representative believes that the army's decision to absorb paramilitary groups as Citizen Armed Force Geographical Unit (Cafgu) only reflects how they have control over them.
"They simply justified that they are merely the ones behind it," Anakpawis Party-list Representative Ariel Casilao said in a peace forum held Friday at the Holy Cross of Davao College.
Casilao has been fighting for the indigenous peoples' rights whose lives allegedly grew chaotic due to the presence of the army on their ancestral lands. Allegedly, some of the armed men harassed and even killed the lumads (indigenous people) for having suspicious involvement with the New People's Army.
But very recently, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) have stopped their operations on the ancestral lands of the lumads where most of the rebels are also seen. It was after President Rodrigo Duterte ordered to focus their offensive operations against the terror group in Zamboanga.
Casilao said that AFP Chief General Ricardo Visaya mentioned having the option to just absorb paramilitary groups Mahagat and Bagani in the Cafgu as they still have some 37,000 unfilled positions for it.
Progressive groups and the lumads as well have been crying out that the paramilitary groups are behind the harassment and killings in their communities.
These paramilitary groups are composed of fellow lumads who are allegedly armed by the AFP to pass on the work to them in getting rid of the indigenous people.
Although the AFP has already vowed to abandon camps near the lumads' ancestral lands, Casilao said they should still investigate it as reports of discrimination still exist.
http://www.sunstar.com.ph/davao/local-news/2016/09/24/army-has-control-over-paramilitary-groups-499701
Anakpawis (Toilers of the Masses) is a Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP)-affiliated party-list political front. The front represents workers under the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU-May One Movement) labor federation, peasants under the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP-Peasant Movement of the Philippines), and the urban poor under the Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap (KADAMAY-National Alliance of Urban Poor Associations).
ReplyDeleteThe commies apparently aren't satisfied with the withdrawal of several Philippine Army battalions from lumad areas in Mindanao, they seem to want all vestiges of government authority, including all pro-government militias from GRP-CPP/NPA contested areas. This will allow the NPA, through CPP-affiliated lumad front organizations, to reinfiltrate and once again establish control over contested lumad areas in northern and eastern Mindanao.