COTABATO CITY – Communist New People’s Army rebels condemned Wednesday the alleged murder of 8 civilians by government troops who accused them as insurgents during a military operation in South Cotabato province.
Efren Aksasato, a rebel spokesman, said soldiers from the 27th Infantry Battalion massacred villagers in Lake Sebu on December 3. “The 27th Infantry Battalion massacred civilian residents and not NPA members in a skirmish that took place in on December 3,” he said in a statement sent to the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner, adding, the victims were all members of the indigenous T’boli tribe opposing mining operation in their ancestral domain.
The 6th Infantry Division said all those killed were NPA rebels who clashed with soldiers that left 2 infantrymen dead.
Aksasato said those killed by soldiers were members of the T’boli-Manobo S’daf Claimants Organization, a group fighting for the tribe’s ancestral lands being claimed by the mining firm D.M. Consunji Holdings Inc. (DMCI) through the government’s Integrated Forest Management Agreement program (IFMA).
IFMA is a production sharing contract entered into by and between the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the mining firm which grants DMCI the exclusive right to develop, manage, protect and utilize a specified area of forestland and forest resources therein for a period of 25 years and may be renewed for another 25-year period, consistent with the principle of sustainable development and in accordance with an approved Comprehensive Development and Management Plan.
“Reports said that at around 12:25 in the afternoon in December 3, forces of the 27th Infantry Battalion conducting military operations arrive in the community. The soldiers approached the house of the chieftain Datu Victor Danyan and opened fire. This prompted the residents, armed with 12-gauge shotguns and indigenous weapons, to fight back.”
“The firefight resulted to the death of eight individuals namely Datu Victor Danyan Sr., Victor Danyan Jr., Artemio Danyan, Pato Celardo, To Diamante, Bobot Lagase, and Mateng Bantal. A number were also wounded that includes Luben Laod and Teteng Laod, and a minor that was taken to a hospital,” Aksasato said.
He said rebel forces near the area responded to the military atrocities and rescued other civilians and brought them to safety away from government soldiers, but eventually NPA fighters engaged troops in a running gun battle. He said one rebel was killed in the clashes.
There was no immediate statement from the military on Aksasato’s allegations. But President Rodrigo Duterte has tagged the NPA and the Communist Party of the Philippines as a terrorist organization following the collapse of the peace talks due to the rebels’ continued attacks on government and military and even civilian targets. (Mindanao Examiner)
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