Kalipunan ng mga Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas (KAMP)

Villages in Surigao del Sur is militarized once more according to local people’s organization Malahutayong Pakigbisog Alang sa mga Sumusunod (Protracted Struggle for the Next Generation) or MAPASU.

“Military presence in these areas is certainly inwelcome. Their mere presence induces fear among the villagers,” Piya Malayao of the Kalipunan ng mga Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas (KAMP) said. The militarized villages are home to Manobo and Mamanwa indigenous folk or Lumads, according to KAMP.

Tandag, Lianga, Marihatag, and neighboring areas have evacuated 6 times in 8 years due to brutal military operations launched in the area. The largest of which was on February 2009, when 1,753 villagers, mostly Lumad, left their homes and encamped for two months in the town center after massive military deployment and operations caused severe human rights atrocities, according to KAMP.

ALCADEV and Tribal Filipino Program of Surigao del Sur (TRIFPSS) are local community and Church efforts to provide education among the Lumad in the area. TRIFPSS was even nominated for the National Literacy Award.

New tactics

According to a local, the military said they were there to “help the village and conduct CMO (Civilian Military Operations)”

The Lumads are right to be wary, says KAMP. “The military tagged Lumad schools, ALCADEV and TRIFPPS as New People’s Army training centers. They destroyed and defaced the schoolhouses and encamped in tribal halls. Villagers were threatened, mauled, and tortured by members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. Some areas were even aerially bombarded. Villagers will not mistake their presence as innocent,” Malayao said.

The military from the 29th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army (29th IB PA) were seen to loiter around the Lumad schools and beside houses of community leader, Datu Jalandoni.

“The Aquino government’s Oplan Bayanihan is no different from Arroyo’s brutal Oplan Bantay Laya,” Malayao said. “It will still basically use military might to crush insurgency, hence the continuing militarization of remote communities. The only difference is Bayanihan is cloaked in the illusion of social services and CMOs.” Human rights violations and extrajudicial slays has not ceased, according to KAMP.

Mining

Surigao del Sur made headlines early this year when the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) held the ‘grandest’ founding anniversary in the province. In the same note, alleged Red taxation on large-scale mining operations became national news, opening up discussion on the extractive industry and affected communities; Surigao is among the most mineral laden areas in the country.

“These areas in Surigao del Sur which are periodically militarized are targeted for mining, and the indigenous peoples who are asserting their rights to ancestral lands are coerced to allow mining. This is blatant and grave development aggression,” Malayao explained.

Around 7,000 hectares of mineral lands in Andap Valley in the CARAGA region are targeted for large-scale mining operations, the Philippines’ largest coal deposit sits beneath the Lumad’s ancestral land. In 2009, KAMP and the local indigenous community declared their community an Ancestral Lands at Risk of Mining site (ALARM site) and forged commitment to oppose entry of large-scale mining and defend their lives and land.

“Our call remains to be the genuine recognition and respect for indigenous peoples’ rights to land, and to self-determined development,” Malayao stresses. “In the short term, we demand the demilitarization of all indigenous communities, to arrest the human rights violations that ensue from military operations.”

According to reports gathered by KAMP, the 58th IB, 29th IB, 75th IB, 23rd IB, 26th IB are conducting operations in Andap Valley alone. #