They slept by day. At night, they left. Following the trail of the river, they walked, crawled, and stumbled. Datu Tungig Mansumuy-at didn’t use flashlights so that they won’t be seen. They first carried their children then went back for the ill.
Barangay leaders of village in Magpet, North Cotabato said they planned to pass a resolution that would ask the government Armed Forces to spare their residents from counterinsurgency interrogations, saying that the mostly farmer residents have expressed fear for their lives while working in isolated farms.
Their exact number could not be immediately determined but random interviews with some of them revealed that government teaching positions are currently the better, if not, the only option over issues of security of tenure, higher paying job and other perks.
The issue of the Talaingod Manobo displacement would be raised by an indigenous peoples woman leader in the ongoing 13th United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York starting last May 12 to 23.
Manila-based rights advocates and partylist representatives joined a week-long fact-finding mission starting Monday to look into the region’s “rampant human rights violations” in farflung communities.
Isla Verde may be habitated with a multimillion rehabilitation after last month’s fire, and a division by tribes may be an option for a more orderly resettlement, the city government information chief said.
Media practitioners marked the World Press Freedom Day (WPFD) with a forum last Monday.
“WORLD PRESS Freedom Day has for many years been an occasion for mourning rather than celebration in the Philippines, where, since 1986, 140 journalists and media workers have been killed for their work, among them the 32 killed on November 23, 2009 in Ampatuan town, Maguindanao province. This year’s commemoration is no different,” the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR) said in a statement Friday.
Moro leaders said their communities raised concern about possible Palace maneuver to foist the recently signed Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) to the international business community rather than address pestering issues like human rights abuses in Moro areas.
As the sun rose from the dark side of the earth on this first Friday of May, the streak of rays also send dawn-breaking and blazing new hope for the Lumads, already set to go home to their place.
