Groups decry killing, arrest of Panay indigenous people

ILOILO City – Peasant and environmental groups condemned the arrests and subsequent killings of nine indigenous Tumandok peoples as part of combined military-police operations in Panay Island.

Two days before the year ends, the troops of the Philippine Army’s 3rd Infantry Division and the Police Regional Office 6 carried out a series of raids in Calinog, Iloilo and Tapaz, Capiz.

Among those killed in Barangay Lahug, Tapaz were Roy Giganto, chairperson of Tumanduk and village councilor and co-councilors Reynaldo Katipunan and Mario Aguirre, according to an alert by farmer group Pamanggas Panay, the regional chapter of militant peasant group Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP).  

The three were all previously placed under military surveillance for protesting against dam projects in the region, the KMP said in a separate statement.

‘PLANTED’

Pamanggas, meanwhile, said that Tumandok farmers Marilyn Chiva, Welsie Chiva, Luisito Bautista Sr., and Glen Legario were rounded up in separate operations by the 12th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army and the Philippine National Police Regional Office 6 in Calinog, Iloilo.

In an interview with Panay News, Marilyn denied owning the recovered weapons from her house.

They were planted, she claimed.

Indi na ya akon. Wala ko ya ikasarang mag-bakal sang mga armas kag explosive. Diyos lang ang kabalo kung kay sino ina,” Chiva said.

Glen and Luisito, on the other hand, confessed that they were former rebels who yielded to the government because of the hardships they experienced in the mountains. 

Naging NPA ako pero nag-untat kag nanaog sa bukid. Tama ka budlay sang sitwasyon sa babaw,” Legario said.

Meanwhile, reports by local radio stations on the identities of some of those killed and arrested included former or current village officials and leaders of the group Tumanduk nga Mangunguma nga Nagapangapin sang Duta kag Kabuhi (Tumanduk).

In an interview with radio station Bombo Radyo in Roxas City, Capiz, village council member Ludovisa Catamin, of Barangay Roosevelt, alleged that the policemen and soldiers entered their house and arrested her son Rolen based on a search warrant.

She said they were ordered out while a policeman entered their house and went out saying firearms had been found and seized.

Catamin denied that the firearms were theirs.

VICTIMS ALL RED-TAGGED

Earlier this month, Jeffrey Celis, whistle blower of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), accused Tumanduk as a front organization of the Communist Party of the Philippines and New People’s Army in the indigenous people’s area in Panay.

Giganto was earlier reported to have been arrested by the military and the police but later turned up dead.

Gayas was also earlier reported arrested by the SEMPO and tortured until he vomited blood.

Bautista was also a barangay councilor who had been red-tagged and summoned by the NTF-ELCAC at the 12th Infantry Battalion camp just last month.

Some of the victims, such as Giganto and Gayas, were known Tumandok tribal leaders who stood against the Jalaur Mega Dam project in their ancestral domain.

They also refused to sign the consent resolution asked of indigenous peoples before projects are implemented in their ancestral land.

In a statement, Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment condemned the massacre.

“It is not a crime for Tumanduk to consistently stand against destructive projects such as the Jalaur Megadam and the Panay River Basin Integrated Development Project,” Kalikasan-PNE National Coordinator Leon Dulce said in a statement.

At least 17,000 Tumandoks are to be displaced by the Jalaur Megadam project, which is expected to cause flooding and other water problems to at least 1.2 million residents along the Jalaur River Basin.

The Panay River Basin project, meanwhile, will affect at least 19 barangays. Its catchment area is projected to flood at least 21,100 hectares of lands, affecting Tumandok ancestral domains. (With Bulatlat/PN)

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