PASAKA

Confederation of Lumad Organizations in Southern Mindanao

PRESS RELEASE

October 5, 2008

Army hit for forcing and using civilians as military guide in Tugbok

The PASAKA Regional Lumad Confederation scored the military soldiers under Task Force Davao and 104th DRC for its abusive military operations and human rights violations such as using civilians as military guide in various villages in Tugbok District.

After the reported clashes between the Task Force Davao together with the Philippine National Police and the New Peoples’ Army last September 26, 2008, counter-insurgency operations of government troops have sown fear and terror among the civilian populace in Tamayong, Calinan District which resulted to hundreds of evacuees.

Nearby villages like Sitio Utan, Tamayong and Sitio Kahusayan, Manuel Guinga, Tugbok District is gravely affected by the counter-insurgency operation since military elements are encamping in the midst of the community and in the barrio centers. “It has only been barely five months since the brutal death of Datu Dominador Diarog and the forcible evacuation of the residents in Kahusayan and now another terror is happening and gravely affecting the lives of the Bagobo-C’lata lumads in the same place, they are not yet even fully rehabilitated from the trauma they had and now they are experiencing fear and terror again. Justice has really been elusive to the lumad victims.” Kerlan “Lala” Fanagel, PASAKA Secretary General said.

Using carrot and stick tactic, residents who refuse to attend the meetings organized by the soldiers were tagged as New People’s Army supporters or members. According to the reports reaching PASAKA office, soldiers coerced some residents in Kahusayan to serve as military guides during their relentless operations in the hinterlands and when they are in the village they would conduct psy-war operations against the civilians. According to the reports of the local lumad organization in the area, soldiers would knock at around 3 o’clock in the morning and force civilians to serve as their guides and the soldiers would even confiscate cell-phones from the residents.

The situation has become so unbearable that some residents have already (again) left their farms and homes and trooped to other Barangays.

Pasaka condemns the ongoing abusive military operations for this will eventually displace the lumads who are being land-grabbed in the area by intimidating them into submission. This is another attempt to quell the local opposition against those who wanted to grab what is left of their ancestral domain.

Pasaka, therefore, calls for an end of the atrocious military operations in the villages of Tamayong, Calinan District and in Tugbok District and an investigation in the human rights violations happening in the area. We also call on the people to support, once and again, the struggle of the Bagobo-C’lata to defend their ancestral domain, their people and their right to self-determination.*

For Reference:

Kerlan “Lala” Fanagel

Secretary General

PASAKA

Contact: 305-0824