Kalipunan ng mga Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas (KAMP)

On March 15, Jimboy Saya, aged 10, our Blaan student in the remote village of Dlumay, was forced by soldiers of the 73rd IB to be photographed donned with a chain of sub-machine gun bullets carrying an M-16 rifle -- “NPA child warrior going to school in Dlumay.”

This is but the latest of a vicious and systematic harassment launched by the 73rd IB against Center for Lumad Advocacy and Services (CLANS) and its projects in the communities it has been serving in Upper Suyan, Malapatan, Sarangani Province.
Since November last year and continuing up to the time of this writing, our staff, our schoolchildren and their parents, and the community leaders, have been subjected to interrogation, harassment, vilification, ridicule and terror. They even went as far as ordering a Blaan family to exhume their dead Pastor, who died of lingering illness, because he was suspected as an NPA killed in action.

We have tried to document these atrocities in detail and for the past months have bravely stood our ground in the school and in the community against the platoon of gun-toting government soldiers who would not let us have a day of peace. On February 18 (which was supposedly ceasefire) no less than our program coordinator, Maricel Salem was interrogated by a certain Sgt. Jake Geron and Pfc Cabawbaw in the sityo center of Datalnay for a full three hours. The military tried to cull information from her on the identities of the staff, the structure of the program and the institution, the source of funding, etc. They also tried to pin down Maricel into admitting that CLANS is anti government as shown in its tarpaulin-printed 5 point agenda (struggle for the ancestral land, protection of the environment, anti large scale mining, access to basic social services, and anti-development aggression). “Your school is against the government and we will not think twice about killing anyone who is against the government.” They told her in front of the Datalnay residents and the staff who bravely tried not to show that they were scared.

The military have also tried to create a rift between CLANS and the community by insinuating that we have pocketed the funds of the micro hydro project for the reason that it has not been finished up to this day.

All these are just too much for us and for our young Blaan literacy teachers and staff whose painstaking hard work with the lumad children in this very remote area is being demolished by the military. “We want to finish the school year with the children and hold graduation!”, the teachers cry out, frustrated and sad.

We have tried our best to seek support from the local government by sending letters and seeking audience with the Barangay Council and Barangay Captain of Upper Suyan and even with the local government of Malapatan and of the province of Sarangani. But we still have to see any assistance or support from them.

More troops arrived on March 16, 2011 in Dlumay and in other sitios of Upper Suyan. And the military has become even more arrogant and vicious, interrogating community leaders for hours on end, terrorizing the residents.

Given the situation, we had no choice but to temporarily move out of the area. School is closed and the micro hydro project is at a standstill. We do not know how long will the military stay in the area, or if they will be the ones to guard the mining sites of San Miguel Corporation, which is where our school and project areas are currently located.

Meanwhile, can’t we do something about this? We cannot afford to just sit down and swallow all the atrocities piled on us with nary a word of indignation or protest. Nor leave the lumad children that we have learned to love. Nor turn our backs on the community who have nurtured us for so long.

And we cannot do this alone. We need your help. And you can help through the following:

1. Expose the real situation in Dlumay and its surrounding lumad communities and in many other parts of Sarangani and Mindanao. Tell your family and friends about the military atrocities and human rights violations happening here. The more people know the truth, the faster and wider our support.

2. Join our Task Force Help our Children, Save our School ( Tnabeng e Dad Nga Mi, Tnamang e Skul Mi), fact finding and documentation mission to Upper Suyan which will be scheduled very soon.

3. Help us reinstate our literacy school, teachers and pupils by driving away the military from our communities. Write petition letters addressed to:
a. His Excellency Benigno Aquino III
b. The Department of Education
c. The Commission on Human Rights
d. Honorable Emmanuel Pacquiao of Sarangani Province
e. Governor Miguel Dominguez of Sarangani Province
f. Vice-Goverrnor Steve Solon Sarangani Province
g. Mayor Alfonso Singcoy of the municipality of Malapatan
h. Barangay Captain Cristino Yatoy of Upper Suyan

4. Contribute to the Help our Children, Save our School ( Tnabeng e Dad Nga Mi, Tnamang e Skul Mi) campaign. We need money, food, medicines and others.

5. Provide trainers’ training on debriefing for the psychosocial debriefing of our students and communities where we are, especially for our teachers and organizers.
--xxx-