Activists seek justice for two slain tribal leaders
Nitz Arancon1 min read
By NITZ ARANCONCorrespondent
MILITANT groups on Thursday staged a demonstration at Magsaysay Park in Divisoria here to decry the killings of Bukidnon tribal leaders Renato Anglao and Matanem Pocuan.
They called on President Duterte to put an end to the killings in Bukidnon, and to see to it that the killers are arrested and brought to justice.
Groups that participated in the demonstration were Bayan Muna, College Editors’ Guild of the Philippines, Higala sa Lumad Network, Union of People’s Lawyers, and Panalipdan Youth, among others.
Activists lit candles to dramatize their protest and drum up public support for their cause.
Angalo, 43, of the Tribal Indigenous Oppressed Group Association (Tindoga), was shot to death by three still unidentified men in Butong, Quezon, Bukidnon on Feb. 3. The following day, a gunmen shot and killed Pocuan in Cabanglasan town.
Lawyer Czarina Musni of the Higala sa Lumad Network, said Angalo was an ancestral domain rights activist who stood up to a plantaion owner in Bukidnon.
Pocuan, she said, was killed by suspected members of a militia group called “Almara.”