By ALEX D. LOPEZ
Davao Today
NPA’s Ka Parago said the fatalities were “armed combatants of the 69th IB Special Operations Team, not defenseless functionaries or civilians falsely depicted by the AFP,” pointing out that the same Army unit is responsible for the recent summary execution of a hemp farmer, Mires Esdang, in Malabog village, Paquibato District last October 18.
By KENETTE JEAN I. MILLONDAGA
Davao Today
She was not simply the wife of an indigenous anti-mining activist. Juvy Capion, the woman killed in what is now called the Tampakan massacre, was a farmer, mother of four, and leader of the Blaan community.
By WARREN CAHAYAG
Davao Today
They are demanding the military to account for such “act of barbarity”, saying that relieving the perpetrators is not enough but the pull-out of these troops “who have become attack dogs against lumads who are only defending their land from being turned into ugly mine sites.”
BY JOHN RIZLE L. SALIGUMBA
Davao Today
The NPA admitted they targeted the military detachment to “emasculate the enemy and wipe out its structure that has placed the lives and properties of the people in danger” but made a mistake “in considering the circumstances, combat intelligence and all pertinent operational information in instigating the action.”
By ALEX D. LOPEZ
Davao Today
One of the angles the residents asked the authorities to look into was the drinking-spree that took place inside the detachment from the afternoon until the evening of September 1. Nevertheless, the presence of the detachment in the center of the village and lying near a civilian facility was criticized by the residents of Fatima.
By DANILDA L. FUSILERO
Davao Today
In a recent psycho-social activity facilitated by the children’s rights advocacy group Children’s Rehabilitation Center, the two boys narrated their experience during their four-hour walk with soldiers from the Philippine Army’s 57th Infantry Battalion.
By MARILOU AGUIRRE-TUBURAN
By MICK M. BASA
Small-scale miners and peasants in this town have been up in arms against the no-habitation policy, saying it displaced and deprived them of their livelihood. They reckoned, the move is in favor of big and foreign mining capitalists.
Military operations in Arakan valley hinder Gina Batoy, wife of slain peasant leader, Ramon, from going back home. Ramon Batoy was killed in a raid by the 10th Special Forces three days after Fr. Fausto “Pops” Tentorio was gunned down, also in the same town. Advocates link the killing of Fr. Tentorio and Batoy as part of the abuses of the AFP counter-insurgency policy Oplan Bayanihan in North Cotabato.
