Soldiers of the Charlie Company of the 50th Infantry Battalion are standing pat on their encampment in Kalinga even after indigenous peoples of Tanglag in Lubuagan town sought their eviction in a dialogue on September 21.
The soldiers arrived in the village and stayed in the house of Punong Barangay Nestor Unday on August 2 this year, Unday said earlier. The villagers immediately objected to the encampment, saying the mere presence of the soldiers endangers the civilian population.
On August 5, villagers officially registered their clamor for the government troops to pull out during a community meeting.
Maricris Banawag said they had insisted that armed groups, including the AFP, should stay 500 meters away from the village. The elements of the Charlie Company headed by 2/Lt. John Rey Caumban negotiated to stay on for an extra two weeks. After two weeks, however, the soldiers refused to honor the agreement.
When the Punong Barangay and other barangay officials inquired at the Battalion headquarters on August 20, Battalion Commander Gulliver Señeres told them that their troops will not pull out because they still had three objectives: CAFGU recruitment, Bayanihan, and neutralizing the community from the New People’s Army influence.
According to Unday, the statement of Señeres sounded final and non-negotiable.
Three women sent a community invitation letter addressed to Caumban at the 50th IB headquarters in Kapanikian, Pinukpuk, Kalinga, seeking a meeting in Tanglag. Despite Caumban's absence, however, the community continued with the dialogue.
On the telephone with Banawag, they told soldiers headed by Corporal Catalon their reasons for wanting the troops out of their village, notably, the trauma from numerous combat operations and military encampments where their human rights were violated.
A community leader, Modesto Tongdo, said at the dialogue there is no reason for the soldiers to stay. If the AFP unit is there to recruit for Civilian Auxiliary Force Geographical Unit, Tongdo said they do not want residents joining the CAFGU in the past the militias were used as shields in combat operations. He also pointed out that the Tanglag have their own practices of Bayanihan and they did not request for the help of the soldiers.
They cited an incident on July 9, 2016, where a hunter was killed by elements of the 50th IB in a nearby village of Se-et, Mabaka, Tanudan, heightening villagers' fear of the men in uniform, as perpetrators came from the same battalion. Banawag said most of the Tanglag men are hunters and with the encampment, they (women) always fear for the lives of their husbands whenever the men go to the forests.
Banawag lamented also that their movements within their ancestral domain became limited due to fear.
Banawag said they felt disrespected by the soldiers' cavalier response when they pointed out that it is unlawful for soldiers to encamp in civilian homes. Corporal Catalon had retorted that it is only unlawful in the eyes of leftists like Satur Ocampo.
Banawag explained that as indigenous peoples, their right to self-determination includes deciding whether or not they want the soldiers encamped in their village. “Nu met koma ania ti decision mi ket respetaren da (They should respect our collective decision for them to pull out)," Banawag said.
Virginia Dammay, chairperson of women’s organization alliance Innabuyog, said the military encampments in Tanglag and Uma of Lubuagan, Kalinga have resulted in human rights violations. The “government troops' disrespect of the community position for military pull out...is an outright violation of the tribes’ collective rights to self determination,” Dammay said.
http://interaksyon.com/article/132740/soldiers--wont-pull-up-kalinga-encampment-even-if-folks-want-them-out
Tanglag in Lubuagan town appears to be a hub of New People's Army activity. A quick review of my files indicates insurgent and CPP front group activity in the area dating back to at least 2005.
ReplyDeleteFor example, in June 2006 the NPA Kalinga Provincial Operations Command (Lejo Cawilan Command) issued a statement claiming to have killed one soldier and wounded two others during a tactical offensive along the boundary of Tanglag, Lubuagan and Lower Taloctoc, Tanudan.
And this isn't the first time that residents of the barangay have demanded the withdrawal of the Philippine Army from the area. In July 2005, certain residents of Tanglag, Lubuagan town demand the removal of elements of the 21st Infantry Battalion for alleged human rights violations.
Suspicion of communist infiltration of Barangay Tanglag, Lubuagan at the present time seems to be borne out with the involvement/statements issued by Virginia Dammay, chairperson of Innabuyog, an alliance of indigenous women's organizations in the Cordillera region. The group is a regional affiliate of the main Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) front group for women, GABRIELA (General Assembly Binding Women for Reform, Integrity, Equality, Leadership, and Action).