The Philippine Army (PA) will extend all the necessary security assistance to the Lumad leaders, who are now being threatened by suspected New People's Army (NPA) terrorists for raising awareness on the communist rebels' exploitation and deception tactics.
This will also include the communities being headed by these Lumad leaders, said PA commander, Lt. Gen. Macairog S. Alberto, in a statement on Monday (Aug. 5).
“The PA recognizes the efforts of our IP brothers and sisters to protect their communities. We are always ready to protect every Filipino, especially the Lumad communities, from the threat of the CPP-NPA-terrorists,” he said.
Earlier, one of the Lumad leaders, Bae Christine Banugan, recalled her experience last July when she received messages from her family that they are being threatened by the New People's Army (NPA) while they are in a speaking trip in the United States on the abuses committed against their communities by the Communist Party of the Philippines and NPA.
Banugan's father was a tribal chieftain killed by the NPAs in 2016.
“We are victims of deception,” Mindanao Indigenous People Council of Elders and Leaders’ executive director Datu Bawan Jacob Lanes said.
“For a while, akala namin kasama namin ang CPP (Communist Party of the Philippines) sa pagtulong sa pagdepensa sa (we thought CPP are with us in helping, in depending) ancestral domain but they are supplanting traditional leaders with revolutionary concept. Nawawala ang mga traditional leaders, pinapatay nila (Traditional leaders are gone, they killed them),” he added.
Lanes, together with Indigenous Peoples (IP) leaders, also reiterated that part of CPP-NPAs’ supplanting is the establishment of IP schools that “brainwashes” their youth and turning them into child warriors.
https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1077068
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