Ramil Miguel of the Association of Community Educators in Mindanao during a press conference at the UCCP Haran compound where displaced Lumads from Davao del Norte take refuge due to the militarization in their community last May 20, 2017.(davaotoday.com)
DAVAO CITY, Philippines — Association of Community Educators Chairperson and Lumad school teacher Ramil Miguel said his group is planning to file charges of frustrated murder against Citizen Armed Force Geographical Unit member Rodel Buntanlog.
In a press conference in Davao City, Miguel said they are also determining the appropriate charges that they can file against the 60th and 72nd Infantry Battalion of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
Miguel and several other teachers and schoolchildren held a picket at the Department of Justice yesterday and and protest camp outside the AFP’s headquarters in Panacan, Davao City today.
Miguel accused the two army battalions of continued harassment and coercion.
It can be recalled that Miguel was the school teacher who, along with some 50 students, was trapped in the Salugpongan Ta Tanu Igkanogon Community Learning Center in Sitio Nasilaban, Talaingod, Davao del Norte last week after Buntanlog fired at the school three times.
Miguel hid inside the school for two days.
Read related story: CAFGU member fires at Lumad school in Talaingod
Miguel said Buntanlog has been harassing him and the school since June 12. Miguel said the assailant had been questioning the legality of the school, and accused it of being run by the New People’s Army.
“Ako siyang gitubag, wala siyay katungod siyempre kay unang una, CAFGU siya. Ang naay katungod mangutana ana katong Department of Education kay diha man mi gahatag sa tanang requirements sa Deped”
(I answered him, he has no right to ask such questions because firstly, he was a CAFGU. The agency who should be asking those questions is the Department of Education, because we submit the requirements to them), he said.
Miguel also refuted the army’s claim that Buntanlog is already in custody, saying that the Cafgu member was still very much at large in Nasilaban.
Army spokesperson Capt. Rhyan Batchar had earlier claimed that Buntanlog was already in the custody of the 1003rd Brigade and would be readily produced for questioning prior to the filing of formal charges.
The teacher also clarified that while Buntanlog had been threatening him directly, the matter was not personal because Buntanlog was not the first who issued threats against the school and its teachers.
Buntanlog said the Alamara, which the militiaman is also a member of, was a group of Lumad backed by the army to hunt for NPA members and sympathizers even among their kin.
The army has denied this allegations, saying that the strife between the Lumad were related to tribal wars or “pangayaw.” (davaotoday.com)
