Mindanao

Previous brushes with US troops make young Moros wary of Balikatan

by
Mar 03, 2008

Activists speak out against the Balikatan in Cagayan de Oro City.

Related story: Fears raised against Balikatan

A day before the joint U.S.-Philippine Balikatan military exercises, young Moro protesters led a barricade in barangay Sarimanok in Marawi City, which ended up with protesters hurling stones at a passing convoy of vehicles loaded with U.S. soldiers. Not contented, the protesters chased the fleeing Hi-Ace and Toyota vans and hit the car windows with stones. Aida Ibrahim, chair of the Moro youth organization Liga ng Kabataang Moro (LKM) in Marawi said the Moro youth will do everything they can to drive the U.S. troops away.

Surigao Lumads return to ransacked homes

by
Dec 24, 2007

Nearly 2,500 Manobo and some Visayan settlers returned to their homes in twelve communities of Surigao Sur on Wednesday after living for a month in overcrowded evacuation centers. However, upon return, the Lumads found their homes had been forcibly entered and ransacked, their belongings scattered anywhere like a storm had passed through, and garbage left behind. Their rice and animals were gone, their cooperative stores had been looted, and their tribal schools desecrated.