By KAI A. ROSELLO & MARILOU AGUIRRE-TUBURAN
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.
“The power outages are but a way of conditioning the minds of consumers that there is a power crisis,” says North Cotabato Governor Taliño-Mendoza, adding that such conditioning has something to do with the privatization of the remaining government-owned power utilities in Mindanao.
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.
“Clearly, he deserved the NPA's punishment” and his death “is a first step towards achieving full revolutionary justice for the beloved Fr. Tentorio.” -- New People's Army