DAVAO CITY (Mindanao Examiner / Oct. 18, 2012) – Philippine soldiers allegedly killed three members of an indigenous tribe during a raid Thursday in South Cotabato province in Mindanao.
Anti-mining and human rights groups said troops raided the house of a B’laan tribal leader Daquil Capion in the town of Tampakan and shot him and his family, killing his 27-year old Juvy and their two children, Pop, 13, and John, 8.
They accused soldiers from the 27th Infantry Battalion under Lt. Col. Alexis Bravo as behind the carnage. Capion, who is wounded in the attack, is said to be in critical condition in an undisclosed hospital.
“We denounce this gross violation of human rights and unnecessary loss of lives and call on the government and the Commission on Human Rights to immediately investigate these killings and bring the perpetrators to justice. We call on the Aquino administration to also pull-out the military not only in Tampakan, but in all mining-affected communities,” Max de Mesa, chairman ng Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates, said in a statement sent to the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner.
Jaybee Garganera, national coordinator of the Alyansa Tigil Mina, said Capion was leading a campaign to protect the rights of the natives and their ancestral lands in Tampakan, where the Sagittarius Mines Inc. is operating.
“We strongly condemn this barbaric and treacherous act of the military, against Daguil and his family,” Garganera said. “He is a B’laan warrior tasked by his clan to protect the ancestral domains. In this case, the most obvious threat against their domain right now is the Tampakan Mining Project of SMI.”
But it was not immediately known what triggered the military attack. The Philippine Army did not release any statement and the spokesman for the 27th Infantry Battalion, Lt. Bethuel Barber, also ignored telephone calls by the Mindanao Examiner. (Mindanao Examiner)
20