Thursday, September 1, 2016

Lumad leaders urge PNP Chief to arrest Lianga massacre suspects

From the Philippine News Agency (Sep 1): Lumad leaders urge PNP Chief to arrest Lianga massacre suspects

Leaders of Lumad communities on Thursday urged Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief Director General Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa to arrest the perpetrators of the Lianga massacre.

This as the Lumad leaders who are also witnesses to the massacre together with farmers, indigenous peoples’ rights advocates, church workers, children’s rights and environmental activists held a rally for peace in front of Camp Crame, in EDSA, Quezon City.

They held the rally to mark the first year anniversary of the brutal Lianga massacre and in support to the Lumad Manobo communities to reclaim their ancestral lands from the military in Surigao del Sur, and the successful resumption of the formal peace talks between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP).

”We want Gen. Dela Rosa’s commitment in making sure that the Lumad can go home safely by arresting the Calpet Egua, Loloy Tejero, Bobby Tejero, Margarito Layno and 32 other AFP goons who killed our leaders,” Katribu Kalipunan ng Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas (Katribu) secretary general Piya Macling Malayao said.

”We want the PNP to exercise the same amount of vigor they spend in chasing drug syndicates when they serve these killers to serve their warrants of arrest,” Malayao added.

Likewise, Pilgrims for Peace convenor Nardy Sabino said “we appeal to the Duterte administration to act decisively in bringing justice to the internally displaced Lumad of Mindanao.”

”In the case of Lianga, there are both warrants of arrest that have not been served and other perpetrators who have been documented in the investigation reports,” Sabino said.

”As peace advocates, we are appealing to the PNP to expeditiously arrest the perpetrators,” he added.

The peace advocates also displayed the streamers showing the photos of Emerito Semarca, Dionel Campos and Bello Sinzo, who they claim, had been summarily executed on Sept. 1, 2015, and the entire community fled from the area.

One year later today, they noted, more than 3,000 Lumad were forcibly evacuated from the towns of Lianga and San Agustin situated in the heart of the Andap Valley Complex, a land corridor highly mineralized with coal, gold, and copper.

They added that the Lumads’ exodus was triggered when Lumad school director Emerito Samarca and Lumad leaders Dionel Campos and Aurelio Sinzo were massacred by the Magahat-Bagani Force, a paramilitary group attached to the 36th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army.

”We look forward to the advancement of the GRP-NDF peace talks to resolve the social, economic and environmental injustices in which armed conflict is rooted,” Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment (Kalikasan PNE) national coordinator Clemente Bautista said.

”Most importantly, we commit ourselves to continue the legacy of the heroic Martyrs of Lianga by pursing radical reforms in policies and governance to stop the systematic attacks against our people and environment,” he added.

The Katribu also reiterated their call for the safe return to their communities of the Lumad evacuees, alongside the immediate pull out of military troops and disarmament of paramilitary groups terrorizing indigenous people (IP) communities.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=1&sid=&nid=1&rid=919098

1 comment:

  1. This is Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) front group-related protest activity. Kalipunan ng mga Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas (KATRIBU-Alliance of Indigenous Peoples of the Philippines), previously known by the acronym KAMP, is a CPP sectoral and political front active on indigenous people's issues.

    Nardy Sabino, a convenor for the Pilgrims for Peace Philippines is also the spokesperson for the Promotion of Church People's Response (PCPR), a CPP religious oriented front group and member of the main CPP multisectoral umbrella front organization the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN-New Patriotic Alliance).

    While Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment (Kalikasan PNE) is a CPP cause-oriented front concerned with environmental issues such as larges-scale mining.

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