By KENETTE JEAN I. MILLONDAGA Davao Today However, they weren’t able to approach the children right away. When they reached the house, government troops were already milling around in the area. “We were almost shot,” Aileen said. “They told us not to go near the house because Daguil Capion (Aileen’s brother) was still present,” she added.
By DANILDA L. FUSILERO Davao Today “NPA man kaha ilang kalaban, nganong kung tudluan namo asa padulong ang mga NPA, dili man lagi nila gukdon. Kami man noon pasanginlang NPA (The NPAs are their supposed enemies. Yet how come that even when we tell them where the NPAs are, it is us that they chase after? Instead, they accuse the civilians as NPAs,” Stella Imbud, a Manobo lumad said.
The community’s fear of the military is not without history. In 2002, a paramilitary group called Alamara, which the community alleged as military-backed and whose members wear camouflage uniforms like ordinary soldiers, have threatened to kill and rape women including Bigkay.
By MARILOU AGUIRRE-TUBURAN Davao Today The Women Studies and Resource Center (WSRC)-Southern Mindanao noted that the Davao Region has the highest incidence of VAW cases accounting 34 percent of the total national incidence. In the last 10 months this year, it said, the Davao City police recorded 1,391 cases of domestic violence or an average of five cases per day. The top three forms of gender violence among women are domestic violence, sexual harassment and rape.
By DANILDA L. FUSILERO Davao Today Protesters here are not only calling for justice for the victims of the Ampatuan massacre. They said that impunity continues from Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s reign to Noynoy Aquino with the increasing cases of rights abuses and growing numbers of rights victims.