Displaced tribal members in Misamis Oriental return to their village

From the Philippine News Agency (Apr 11):  Displaced tribal members in Misamis Oriental return to their village

About 190 men, women and children of the Higa-onon tribe on Tuesday started trekking back to their community in the hinterlands of Mincamansi, a remote village in this coastal town of Lagonglong 55 kilometers east of Cagayan De Oro City.

The tribal members, consisting of 35 families, left their farmlands and evacuated to the provincial capitol ground in Cagayan De Oro City last March 30, after the military laid siege on the village in pursuit of alleged combatants of the New People’s Army (NPA).

Misamis Oriental Governor Yevgeny Vincente Emano ordered the return of the evacuees to their tribal homeland after the fact-finding team, earlier sent to investigate the condition in Mincamansi, recommended that it was already safe for the tribal group to go home.

The fact-finding team, led by Francisco Dy, Jr., head of the provincial disaster management, was composed of representatives from the religious sector and local and provincial governments.

During a dialogue on Monday at the capitol hosted by the provincial government, the military agreed that government troopers would not be stationed in Mincamansi during hot pursuit operations.

In the same forum, Clarissa Acosta, the spokesperson of the tribal community, narrated that the military occupied some houses of the indigenous peoples, the church and other local government owned facilities in Mincamansi in the last week of March.

“We decided to leave the place since we sensed that the presence of the military would endanger our lives if an armed conflict between the government troopers and the communist New People’s Army (NPA) occurs in the community,” Acosta said.

Acosta also said the NPAs members do not stay in their community and denied that the communist rebels would take refuge in their village during armed encounters with the military.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=2&sid=&nid=2&rid=979578