New People’s Army guerriilas killed two soldiers and wounded six others in an armed encounter in Davao del Norte Tuesday.
“They made us guide them to where the NPA rebels are posting. They did not allow us to refuse,” said Pedro in vernacular. “I asked them if we will be put to danger, they said they are not sure and that would depend on whether the NPAs hit us.”
“Ang gusto gyud ni mayor unta kung pwede mubalik ang mga Lumad og mga evacuees didto sa Brgy.Palma Gil, didto sa safe area nato, dayun i-assure ni mayor ang pagkaon og tanan makaya ihatag sa gobyerno. (The mayor wants the Lumad evacuees to return to Barangay Palma Gil, in a safe place. The Mayor also assures that there would be food and other relief goods to be provided for them),” Tocmo told the leaders.
TALAINGOD, Davao del Norte – Ata-Manobo children complained that they were included in sporadic military questioning of residents in this…
A Moro National Liberation Front faction has urged Malacañang to resolve the three remaining issues on territory, provisional government and definition and sharing of revenues of strategic minerals to complete the government commitment to pass an amended law to implement the final peace agreement they reached in 1996.
The Ata-Manobo Lumads repeated history as they fled from heavily militarized villages on foot and upon reaching access roads, boarded trucks to seek refuge in Davao City. Along the way, a mother gave birth, while a 12-day old infant died.
Two families demanded the newly-deployed Philippine Army 9th Infantry Battalion to bring out soldiers allegedly involved in the murder of a youth and the disappearance of his friend two weeks ago in Maco, Compostela Valley.
Datu Doloman Dawsay, spokesperson of the Manobo organization Salugpongan Ta’ Tanu Igkanugon (Unite to defend the land) said that military operations of 68th Infantry Battalion, 60th IB and 4th Special Forces displaced 1,353 individuals comprising 309 families from the sitios of Pongpong, Nalubas, Bagang, Bayabas, Saso, Lasakan, Sambolongan and Bugni of Barangay Palma Gil, Talaingod, Davao del Norte.
A Manobo tribal leader in Davao Del Norte claimed that new troops sent near their village threatened both men and women and scared schoolchildren as they accused the village of harboring New People’s Army guerrillas.
Theater actress and activist Monique Wilson took the cudgels of some 700 small vendors who were fighting against an eviction.
