BAGANGA, DAVAO ORIENTAL (davaotoday.com) Even before they could open it, villagers in Baganga town of Davao Oriental are already complaining about the 24-hour shift that running the Barangay Defense System outpost will entail.
It will disrupt our farming activities, one villager complained to a fact-finding and medical mission team that entered the area on October 21 to 23.
BDS members dont have salaries. What will our family eat? Read on
By GERMELINA LACORTE
COLUMBIO, SULTAN KUDARAT — B’laan farmer Tolyano Dalumatan had to go back to their old house in sitio Talambato in Matanao town of Davao del Sur to cut some bamboos for the walling of their new house in Columbio. “He didn�t even get to cut bamboos,� said a relative.
By GRACE S. UDDIN
TALAINGOD, DAVAO DEL NORTE � Contrary to the soldiers� claim, the school for Lumads in Talaingod has been operating in the last three years with a permit from the Department of Education (DepEd).
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.
DAVAO CITY (davaotoday.com) — A partylist representative and leaders of indigenous peoples groups in Mindanao said theres no reason to celebrate the 15th year of International Day of Indigenous Peoples as the tribes continue to suffer from the atrocities of the Arroyo administration.
“The Arroyo administration did not only fail to uphold, protect and promote IP rights, Gabriela Women Partylist representative Luz Ilagan said, It has also violated these rights. Read on
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.
(Second of three parts)
First Part : A Pattern to Madness
AT LEAST three people whose names and groups were on the reported military list that Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo leaked to the media in May, were killed in the last two years. The picture of Pojas, killed on May 15 last year, appeared in one of the slides.
DAVAO CITY (davaotoday.com) While more health workers chose to go abroad to look for greener pastures, Dr. Rogelio Bong Peera, 45, opted to stay. But on June 24 this year, his killers took his life.
His brother Carlos Peera said he learned from the neighbors that men aboard an L200 vehicle had been asking about Dr. Peera a few days before he was killed.
Dr. Jean Lindo, a member of the doctors group Rx for Peace, said that amidst the continuing migration of doctors out of the country, Peeras death was a big loss. Read on.
DAVAO CITY (davaotoday.com) — A farmer last seen beaten and forcibly taken allegedly by soldiers on July 4 is missing, according to the human rights group Karapatan.
Witnesses saw Alvin Lopez, 25, a farmer and resident of sitio Maot, Barangay San Jose in Monkayo town of Compostela Valley Province hogtied, and forced into a military vehicle during a military operation. Alvin’s mother, Erlinda, 46, sought Karapatan’s help to locate his son. She filed a complaint Tuesday before the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) in the region against the military’s 26th Infantry Battalion based in the area. Read on.
(first of three parts)
First, their groups have been tagged as the legal fronts of the Communist New People’s Army. Then, top military officials make public statements suggesting they’re enemies of the state. Finally, before anyone could stop to consider, they are killed.
This pattern emerges in the extrajudicial killings of activists in the country, which have become more pronounced in Davao City and neighboring provinces of Compostela Valley as the government’s 2010 deadline to wipe out the Communist insurgency looms.
After Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo exposed the existence of a military document linking some individuals and civil society groups to the Communist movement, Davao Today finds it urgent to look into the pattern of the killings of activists in this part of the country. Read on.
