DAVAO CITY (Mindanao Examiner / Apr. 23, 2013) – Dozens of members of a humanitarian fact-finding mission arrived in the southern Filipino city of Davao after being held by the military in the province of Davao Oriental.
The army held some 70 people who went there to investigate alleged human rights abuses by government troops in the town of Baganga and to hold a medical mission. Tribesmen have accused the soldiers of harassing them and that they are being branded as supporters or members of the communist New People’s Army.
The Philippine Army denied it held the members of the mission.
Sister Noemi Degala, Executive Secretary of Sisters Association in Mindanao, has criticized Col. Leopoldo Rey Guerrero, commander of the 701st Infantry Brigade in Baganga town, for saying that soldiers “hosted” and not hostage her group.
Degala, also the convener of Bulig Alang sa Mindanao (Balsa Mindanao), said it was the Mandaya community that warmly hosted the mission delegates despite the threats of the military against them.
“We are not withdrawing our claim that we were held hostage by the military. By the mere fact that we were stuck in a community between two military detachments, with all our means of transportation deliberately hampered by the soldiers to prevent our safe passage, we categorically say that we were held hostage. We may not have been held at gunpoint, but the clear hand of terror of the military in intimidating us and causing us psychological trauma, clearly points to hostage taking,” Degala said in a statement sent to the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner.
“Cutting all means of transportation to prevent us from getting out of the remote areas of Binondo village left us with meager food and water and compelled us to trek for not less than seven kilometers. These were the circumstances perpetuated by the 67th Infantry Battalion and their masters. The drivers and the locals revealed with regrets that their refusal to help us was a consequence of the military’s rule of terror in their communities,” she said.
Rita Baua, of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan National Office, said one of the delegates told them that they would hold the army responsible should any harm fall on the communities that hosted them.
“If the military were able to intimidate our team of nuns, pastors, doctors, nurses, professors, scientists, then it is certain that they could do even more to the already marginalized indigenous peoples who live in daily fear and military aggression,” the 68-year old Baua said.
Baua was one of those who braved the back-breaking ride and hours of long trek to deliver basic services to the victims of typhoon Pablo in Davao. She blamed President Benigno Aquino’s counterinsurgency plan dubbed “Oplan Bayanihan” for their ordeal, saying the military had threatened them during their past humanitarian mission for typhoon victims.
“There is an apparent effort to militarize the relief services in Davao Oriental. Even in one of the checkpoints that held us on our way to Baganga, the soldiers told us to turn over the relief goods and medicines to them and let them do the distribution. Because we were persistent, and because our mission had a fact-finding component, they did their best to delay and threaten us so we would not be able to discover and expose their anomalies,” Baua said.
Degala said the mission was successful despite the military harassments. She said their medical mission served more than 200 people. They distributed 10 kilos of rice for each family in Sitio Mantapay, Limot and Tanggaan, and conducted psychosocial therapy for the children.
“Our noble cause was victorious despite many attempts to make us cower. We consider the three-day mission as a blessing that helped us experience not only the condemnable hostility of the military but also the good-hearted Lumad brothers and sisters who are also potentially-capable of rising up for the protection of creation and for the defense of their ancestral domain, their life,” Degala said.
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