PASAKA
Confederation of Lumad Organizations in Southern Mindanao
c/o Diakonia Center , IFI Compound, F. Torres St. , Davao City ; Contact telephone #s: 305-0824; CP #: 0929-2658967
PRESS RELEASE
November 14, 2007
Woman lumad leader and HR watchdog protested amid news of CAFGU allowance distribution
An Ata –Matigsalug Bae (woman leader) protested against the military’s continued recruitment of Civil Armed Forces Geographic Unit (CAFGU’s) triggered by yesterday’s news which showed military officers showing off stacks of 500 peso bills and distributing allowances for Mindanao-based CAFGU’s.
“Paying off and arming people who become instruments of abuse is nothing that lumads would be happy about. CAFGU’s and paramilitary groups have committed human rights abuses against our people innumerable times that I have lost count,” said Bae Bibyaon Bigkay Ligkayan, a respected leader of the Natulinan Ta Tanu Igkanugon, the lumad organization in Brgy. Kagalangan, San Fernando Bukidnon and which is also an active member organization of PASAKA.
Bae Bigkay added that many lumads are forced to join CAFGU’s while some are enticed with the promise of such allowances. She called such practice of the military as “shameless” and “as sign of cowardice.”
“The lumads who have either forcibly or voluntarily joined military forces are just being used to fight the military’s war, consequently, they become nuisance in the community and disturb our peace,” Bae Bigkay stressed.
The lumad leader herself professed of being hunted down by the Alamara paramilitary group, a notorious group of armed lumads allegedly created and funded by the 73rd Infantry Battalion which was then under the command of Col. Eduardo Del Rosario.
Indigenous Peoples Human Rights Watch (IPHR), a human rights watchdog documenting HRV’s committed against indigenous peoples, said in its report to United Nations Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Peoples (UNSRIP) Rodolfo Stavenhagen that the most atrocious effects of recruiting civilians into paramilitary groups is the division that it creates in the community.
IPHR – Watch’s report said: “It has been established that most of those joining the paramilitary units come from the dregs of society. However, many other law abiding individuals are forcibly joining the paramilitary units due to threats from the AFP, the required quota of recruits, to get even with clan/tribal counterparts, and simply due to economic circumstances.”
In response to this report and testimonies from various indigenous tribes, UNSRIP Professor Stavenhagen recommended the disbandment of these groups as quoted below:
“Equally serious are reports of arbitrary detention, persecution and even killings of community representatives, coercion, forced recruitment, and also of rape, by the armed forces, the police or so-called paramilitaries. In this connection mention must be made of the CAFGU set up by the army in numerous indigenous municipalities, whose semi-military activities often tend to divide the local communities and set one group against another. These reports are documented and substantiated, and yet the alleged victims claim that they do not receive due process and justice in the courts when they file their complaints. The Special Rapporteur recommends that CAFGU, given their divisive effects and alleged human rights violations, be withdrawn from indigenous areas altogether.”
Despite these recommendations however, the Arroyo administration in 2003 increased the number of CAFGU recruits and then Defense Secretary Reyes gave orders to aggressively recruit indigenous peoples into the Armed Forces and its paramilitary units, the CAFGUs and vigilante groups. He even tasked them to allot 10 per cent of new recruits from the tribal people. #
For Reference:
Bai Bibyaon Ligkayan Bigkay
Natulinan Ta Tanu Igkanugon Chairperson
PASAKA Council Member
Confederation of Lumad Organizations in Southern Mindanao
c/o Diakonia Center , IFI Compound, F. Torres St. , Davao City ; Contact telephone #s: 305-0824; CP #: 0929-2658967
PRESS RELEASE
November 14, 2007
Woman lumad leader and HR watchdog protested amid news of CAFGU allowance distribution
An Ata –Matigsalug Bae (woman leader) protested against the military’s continued recruitment of Civil Armed Forces Geographic Unit (CAFGU’s) triggered by yesterday’s news which showed military officers showing off stacks of 500 peso bills and distributing allowances for Mindanao-based CAFGU’s.
“Paying off and arming people who become instruments of abuse is nothing that lumads would be happy about. CAFGU’s and paramilitary groups have committed human rights abuses against our people innumerable times that I have lost count,” said Bae Bibyaon Bigkay Ligkayan, a respected leader of the Natulinan Ta Tanu Igkanugon, the lumad organization in Brgy. Kagalangan, San Fernando Bukidnon and which is also an active member organization of PASAKA.
Bae Bigkay added that many lumads are forced to join CAFGU’s while some are enticed with the promise of such allowances. She called such practice of the military as “shameless” and “as sign of cowardice.”
“The lumads who have either forcibly or voluntarily joined military forces are just being used to fight the military’s war, consequently, they become nuisance in the community and disturb our peace,” Bae Bigkay stressed.
The lumad leader herself professed of being hunted down by the Alamara paramilitary group, a notorious group of armed lumads allegedly created and funded by the 73rd Infantry Battalion which was then under the command of Col. Eduardo Del Rosario.
Indigenous Peoples Human Rights Watch (IPHR), a human rights watchdog documenting HRV’s committed against indigenous peoples, said in its report to United Nations Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Peoples (UNSRIP) Rodolfo Stavenhagen that the most atrocious effects of recruiting civilians into paramilitary groups is the division that it creates in the community.
IPHR – Watch’s report said: “It has been established that most of those joining the paramilitary units come from the dregs of society. However, many other law abiding individuals are forcibly joining the paramilitary units due to threats from the AFP, the required quota of recruits, to get even with clan/tribal counterparts, and simply due to economic circumstances.”
In response to this report and testimonies from various indigenous tribes, UNSRIP Professor Stavenhagen recommended the disbandment of these groups as quoted below:
“Equally serious are reports of arbitrary detention, persecution and even killings of community representatives, coercion, forced recruitment, and also of rape, by the armed forces, the police or so-called paramilitaries. In this connection mention must be made of the CAFGU set up by the army in numerous indigenous municipalities, whose semi-military activities often tend to divide the local communities and set one group against another. These reports are documented and substantiated, and yet the alleged victims claim that they do not receive due process and justice in the courts when they file their complaints. The Special Rapporteur recommends that CAFGU, given their divisive effects and alleged human rights violations, be withdrawn from indigenous areas altogether.”
Despite these recommendations however, the Arroyo administration in 2003 increased the number of CAFGU recruits and then Defense Secretary Reyes gave orders to aggressively recruit indigenous peoples into the Armed Forces and its paramilitary units, the CAFGUs and vigilante groups. He even tasked them to allot 10 per cent of new recruits from the tribal people. #
For Reference:
Bai Bibyaon Ligkayan Bigkay
Natulinan Ta Tanu Igkanugon Chairperson
PASAKA Council Member
posted by Solidarity Action Group for Indigenous Peoples at 5:19 AM
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