The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) said
Tuesday that it will continue to assist more than 500 Lumads families who
returned home through programs such as Cash/Food-for-Work C/FFW) and Emergency
Shelter Assistance (ESA).
DSWD Secretary Judy Taguiwalo said that the C/FFW with a
recommended budget of Php 11 million would be implemented through the
Sustainable Livelihood Program’s Cash for Building Livelihood Assets (CBLA).
In a statement, Taguiwalo also said that implementation
would be for a maximum of 11 days per person while working or cultivating their
agricultural land or any preparatory work for the livelihood endeavor most
suitable to the IDPs.
DSWD-Caraga will also facilitate Lumads' access to ESA for
the repair of their houses that were left unattended, and those that were
burned down.
The Department is also prioritizing the education of Lumad
children with the proposed construction of school buildings in Caraga region.
The 500 Lumad families have returned to their villages after
staying at the Tandag Gymnasium for a year. They were part of the 730 families
who were forced to leave their homes and livelihood on Sept. 1, 2015 due to
threats from paramilitary groups such as Magahat/Bagani, and from continued
militarization of their ancestral land.
The Lumads mass evacuation was triggered by the killing of
two of their Lumad leaders, Dionel Campos and his cousin, Bello Sinzo, who were
shot in broad daylight, in the presence of the whole community by Magahat/
Bagani members.
Also found dead that day was Emerito Samarca whose throat
was slit from ear-to-ear. Samarca was the executive director of the Alternative Learning Center
According to the Lumads, internally displaced persons
(IDPs), on August 31, 2015, two days before the tragic death of the two lumad
leaders and the educator from ALCADEV, the Magahat/Bagani Force and elements
from the 36th IB encamped in the ALCADEV school compound threatened the
school’s faculty members, staff and community members to massacre the community
if the people would not leave in two days.
Since the Lumad's mass evacuation in September last year,
the DSWD-Field Office Caraga, together with other government agencies,
non-government and humanitarian organizations, extended food and non-food
assistance to the evacuees as augmentation support to the local government unit
of Surigao del Sur to ensure that basic needs were provided to the evacuees.
“All efforts must be made to ensure and protect the security
of the Lumads. It is not enough that they have been able to return to their
communities: We have to remain vigilant against the resurgence of any threats,”
said Taguiwalo.
http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=1&sid=&nid=1&rid=924544
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