In the session, Ludenio Monzon, a Mandaya farmer from Boston town narrated the experience of his cousin, Molito Latiban who was mauled by the soldiers.
He called for a stop in the military operations by the 67th and the 72nd Infantry Battalions of the Philippine Army in the area, which, he said, have already been affecting the livelihood of people. “It is supposed to be planting season but we could not do work in our farms because we fear that what happened to Molito might also happen to us,” Monzon said.
Representing residents of Baganga, Antonina Piamonte said some 200 families fled their homes following incidents of aerial bombings in the barangays of Campawan and San Victor of the town. “They would rather cram in the houses of relatives than return home, where they are in danger of being hit by gunfire,” Piamonte noted.
Karapatan’s Kelly Delgado said that the military operations violate the conduct of war, explicitly cited in international humanitarian laws. “These acts of indiscriminate firing by the military where civilians are in danger of being hit, and acts of torture inflicted on civilians to obtain information about their enemies, are clear human rights violations,” Delgado said.
Indigenous Peoples
