NPA attacks Lumad camp

From the Manila Standard Today (Jun 11): NPA attacks Lumad camp

After raiding Carmen town in Agusan del Norte on Sunday, around 60 New People’s Army rebels attacked Monday the Tagbagani Camp of lumads in Barangay Panikian, Carasscal in Surigao del Sur, authorities said.

Col. Gregory Cayetano, 401st Infantry Brigade Commander, said the group targeted  the compound of Marcventures Mining and Development Corp. in Barangay Gabuyan also in Carasscal more than a kilometer away from the lumad stronghold.

He said intelligence reports enabled the army to field troops to secure the mining site as a preventive measure.

“They diverted their attack to Tagbagani Camp of the lumads guarding their ancestral domain now mined by different mining firms” Cayetano told Manila Standard when reached by cellphone.

The brigade is under the army’s Fourth Infantry Division based in Cagayan de Oro City.

4th ID spokesman Major Christian Uy in a phone interview Tuesday morning said the rebels took four .45 caliber Smith and Wesson pistols, two 5.56mm M4 assault rifles, one .30 caliber M2 carbine, one 5.56mm AR-18 rifle, one shotgun and a .38 caliber pistol along with assorted ammunition.

Uy said he had no report about the presence of Datu Rayan Hunog, leader of the lumad armed security group when its camp was attacked nor information whether the lost firearms were licensed.

But he said the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act of 1997 allowed tribes to protect their ancestral land noting that mining firms owned licensed firearms that were assigned to lumads hired to guard their mining concessions.

But Cayetano said the Philippine National Police was in a better position to determine the status of armed lumads or tribes.

“I think the PNP has its own office dealing with licensing and issuing permits to carry and owned firearms. Maybe it is the PNP that can answer if those other firearms possessed by Tagbagani were licensed or not,” he told Manila Standard.

Chief Supt. Dominador Eslava Aquino, PNP Caraga regional director, was unavailable for comment when contacted by phone on Tuesday; calls to the information office in Camp Rafael Rodriguez were also unanswered.

According to the Mines and Geosciences Bureau, Marcventures holds a mineral production sharing agreement for a 4,799-hectare tenement located in Cantilan, Surigao del Sur.

http://manilastandardtoday.com/2014/06/11/npa-attacks-lumad-camp/