There is this very interesting segment of a news report about the on-going protest action waged by Lumads of Mindanao through their Manilakbayan – protest trek all the way from Mindanao to the NCR.
Lumads who marched from Mindanao and have converged here picketed at the national office of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples to demand its closure for alleged failure to solve Lumad killings in Mindanao.
“They [NCIP] are the ones who initiated the creation of paramilitary groups,” said Bai Christina Lagdao, a female Matigsalug leader from Compostela Valley in Davao Region.
She said paramilitary groups are recruited from the Lumad communities and trained by soldiers. The groups have been blamed for the series of killings of Lumad leaders and activists in Mindanao.
Lagdao said that “the NCIP does nothing and not serious on the plight of the lumads in Mindanao. It does not help solve the killings.”
But NCIP Spokesman, Jonathan Adaci said the call of protest is “nothing new”.
“Every now and then we get this call to close the agency. With all due respect we are hearing their voices, getting their voices, how we wish that this is the true sentiments of the Lumad community involved,” he said.
On the issue of the killing of Lumads, Adaci said “there is already an ongoing investigation [and] the NCIP has issued resolution condemning the killings”.
When asked on the results of the investigation on the killings, he said “the NCIP does not have the authority to disclose the results for it is now in hands of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).”
“We gather several IP leaders and they were able to issue statement of their own,” he said. The gist of the statement, according to Adaci, is “to pull out all not just the armed groups in Lumad communities but also the non-government organizations, civil society organizations, and local government unit.”
He added that historically, “the IPs has resolved (issues) on their own,” adding that, “the leaders who issued the statement are legitimate Lumad leaders who are identified by the agency.”
The Lumad protesters did not only describe very precisely the NCIP as “inutile”, they demanded its closure. True enough! Of what use is this government agency, calling itself the National Commission for Indigenous Peoples, if it is impotent? Worse, it serves as an adjurnct to the military.
Its spokesperson Jonathan Adaci responds to the protest call by saying there is “nothing new” in the call. And adds that “there is already an ongoing investigation [and] the NCIP has issued a resolution condemning the killings”.
Jonathan Adaci, in saying “nothing is new” spits to the wind and his saliva splatters on his own face. His own phrase— nothing new— is a mere echo of what any and all government people invariably babble in response to people’s legitimate grievances and righteous demands, from the President down to the lowest personnel in the bureaucracy.
Moreover, he says the result of the investigation cannot be released to the public because it’s in the hands of the NBI. Then he advances a statement that purports “to pull out all not just the armed groups in Lumad communities but also the non-government organizations, civil society organizations, and local government unit.”
Aha, that is where the hocus pocus lies! The investigation is like a ‘sarswela act’ that lays down the premise as a form of recommendation for another agency to execute the anticipated action! And what is that action?
Here it is: Pull out all the armed groups in the Lumad communities, including the NGOs, CSOs and the LGU!
Wow! Excellent! It fits very well the agenda of Oplan Bayanihan. It does not even specifically mention the “AFP and paramilitary groups”. But even if the AFP and its paramilitary units are pulled out, that is no guaranty the Lumad residents are already safe! No! The cycle of violence and killing holidays will just be renewed. And with even worse wickedness !
That has been done before!
With the mediation of Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, there had been dialogues and an agreement was reached between the AFP officers and the Lumad evacuees for the military to leave Talaingod late last year. Okay, they promised a pull out, but it was a “token pull out”. Before the soldiers of the AFP could even reach their barracks, they were there again! Back in Talaingod! And this time around , their abuses were more brazen and made with more satanic ferocity !
Who could stop the AFP? President Noynoy ? Haha, He is hostage to the Military! And even if not, his subtle dictatorship will always let prevail his undeclared martial rule in the countryside and let the AFP scorch the Lumadlands with impunity.
The only viable, sustainable, commendable solution should have been this, and this constitutes the core of the matter:
Drive away all the foreign capitalist plunderers of our mineral resources from the Lumadlands and elsewhere in our country! Clear our lands of all these foreign bandits who rob the Filipino people of their wealth and despoil Mother Nature!
When that is done, then what the NCIP sycophants, the CHR (Commission on Hucospocus Response) and the AFP (Army of Foreign Powers) and all the other merchants of deceit are touting as ‘normalization process’ can be initiated. Not by any government agents, but by the Lumads themselves.
So long as the government allows the foreign corporations in our lands to extract our rich mineral ores and lays open for pillage our vast lands for their profit holidays, the AFP will always be there to serve as their “sekyu”rity forces. And the concerned citizens among the Filipino people who will always oppose and resist the plunder of our national patrimony by foreigners will be vilified, demonized, and neutralized (killed).
What this government and the military are doing now to the Lumads who are resisting the foreign capitalists in exploiting their ancestral domain is part of a virtual ethnocide. This makes the following question very relevant: Is this a government of the Filipino people? Or a government of the foreign monopoly capitalists.
