Politics

Mindanao group slams recruitment of lumads to fight the NPAs

by
Mar 05, 2009

By GERMELINA A. LACORTE | Davao Today

Lumads belonging to the Mindanao-wide indigenous peoples group Kalumaran claim theyre being recruited to fight the NPAs against their will. (davaotoday.com photo by Barry Ohaylan)

Lumads are made to fight against each other so that big mining companies and plantations can come in and take control of the ancestral domain, said Norma Capuyan, Kalumaran vice chairperson.

Dulphing Ogan, secretary-general of the indigenous peoples group Kalumaran, said that militarization remains to be the greatest problem facing the lumads, who are also fast losing their ancestral lands to big mining and plantation companies without their consent.

In other places, a mining firm operates but there are no plantations, he said, But in all places, the military presence brings about widespread fear.Read on.