By CHERYLL FIEL The image of a soldier shooting a villager clambering upon the back of an open truck is still fresh in the minds of the Manobos when they left their homes in Barangay Diatagon in Lianga, Surigao del Sur in July this year.
By CHERYLL FIEL After one month and 13 days at the evacuation camp, the Manobo evacuees finally went home to Lianga on August 30. Aboard a convoy of 40 trucks to barangay Diatagon, the lumads left the grounds of the Diocese of Tandag that served as their evacuation camp. But barely a month after coming home, the soldiers are back again, recruiting them to the Task Force Gantangan, a paramilitary group to fight the government?s war against the insurgents.
By CHERYLL FIEL Twenty members of lumad support groups, including a Davao Today reporter, went inside Talaingod?s sitio Dulyan in barangay Palma Gil to verify reports that soldiers have been occupying some houses in the village, a violation of the International Humanitarian Law that bans soldiers from civilian areas.
DAVAO CITY - - A lumad farmer survived a slay attempt in Baganga town of Davao Oriental on June 26 this year. ?I was lucky to have noticed the triggerman drew a gun as their motorcycle pulled alongside us. I heard three shots. They were so close, I could almost see the bullets whizzing by my head," Gonzales told Davao Today. Read on.
On the day Cory was buried, Davao activists saw it fitting to pay tribute by going out to the streets. Leonardo Ortilano, 60, a jeepney driver parked his jeepney, letting go of the few pesos he could have earned, just to attend the street program. He said it pays to remember the woman who brought home the idea that no dictator will go unopposed. For Ortilano, Cory became the symbol through which people recognized their strength to fight the evils of Martial Law. Read on.