Special Reports

“Ang gusto gyud ni mayor unta kung pwede mubalik ang mga Lumad og mga evacuees didto sa Brgy.Palma Gil, didto sa safe area nato, dayun i-assure ni mayor ang pagkaon og tanan makaya ihatag sa gobyerno. (The mayor wants the Lumad evacuees to return to Barangay Palma Gil, in a safe place. The Mayor also assures that there would be food and other relief goods to be provided for them),” Tocmo told the leaders.

FACE OFF. Talaingod Manobo leader Datu Doluman Dausay (left) faced Zandro Tocmo (in white shirt), administrator of Talaingod local government at a dialogue in the evacuation site in UCCP Haran to demand the LGU to call for the pull out of military units from their community. (Daisy Jane M. Apit/davaotoday.com)

ABORTED CLASSES. Teody Mansimuy-at, a Manobo literacy-numeracy teacher in Barangay Palma Gil, Talaingod, Davao del Norte said they were forced to cancel plans of summer school because of alleged threats and abuses of Army troops present in their communities. Mansimuy-at is one of the 1300 plus Talaingod Manobos, mostly women and children, now in Davao City who fled Talaingod for the safety of Davao City.

A return to the “militarized areas” is also a violation to international human rights instruments, said Bishop Felixberto Calang, of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente and chairperson of Barug Katungod Mindanao.

As schools across the country are holding commencement exercises, schoolchildren from Barangay Palma Gil in Talaingod, Davao del Norte would be trudging, instead of marching, and going not up a stage to be applauded, but down from their mountain communities. In the process they have earned a new title – not graduates, but bakwit, evacuees, the displaced.

Some 1,500 Ata Manobos left their villages last April 1 in the hinterlands of Talaingod, Davao del Norte after what they said were harassments brought by military troops occupying their communities for weeks.

TALAINGOD, Davao del Norte – Ata-Manobo children  complained that they were included in sporadic military questioning of residents in this…

The Ata-Manobo Lumads repeated history as they fled from heavily militarized villages on foot and upon reaching access roads, boarded trucks to seek refuge in Davao City. Along the way, a mother gave birth, while a 12-day old infant died.

Datu Doloman Dawsay, spokesperson of the Manobo organization Salugpongan Ta’ Tanu Igkanugon (Unite to defend the land) said that military operations of 68th Infantry Battalion, 60th IB and 4th Special Forces displaced 1,353 individuals comprising 309 families from the sitios of Pongpong, Nalubas, Bagang, Bayabas, Saso, Lasakan, Sambolongan and Bugni of Barangay Palma Gil, Talaingod, Davao del Norte.