Reds demand justice for lumad killings

By Cong B. Corrales,
Associate Editor

THE COMMUNIST Party of the Philippines condemned the recent spate of lumad killings and tribal teachers in Davao and Cotabato and demanded the Duterte administration for swift justice even as both parties are prepping up for the resumption of peace talks later this month.

In an emailed statement, the CPP called on Duterte to stop what it labeled as a militarization campaign by the Army, its auxillary forces, and paramilitary groups who have “sown terror among the villages, killing indigenous people’s leaders, destroying their schools, disrupting their livelihood” under Oplan Bayanihan.

The communist party claimed in the statement that Oplan Bayanihan has been designed to crush the indigenes’ opposition to the wholesale plunder of their ancestral lands.

“Today, even as numerous killings and evacuations remain unresolved, big mining companies, plantations, loggers, and big business continue to seize Lumad lands,” the CPP’s statement reads in part.

The communists took Duterte to task on his recent declaration of bringing peace in the entire island and the rest of the country.

“The Lumad people expect much from Duterte to immediately carry out positive measures to address their plight, secure the Lumad’s ancestral lands against big foreign mining companies, disband the paramilitary units and withdraw the Philippine Army units in order to put an end to widespread militarization of civilian communities,” the statement continues.

Danny Diarog, tribal chieftain of the Bagobo K’lata tribe and Hermie Alegre, Parent-Teacher-Community Association president of Salugpungan school in Sitio Kahusayan, Barangay Dianga, Tugbok District, Davao City, were shot at around 2 pm last July 15 by motorcycleiding men at Sitio Kagaspan while on their way home from a meeting with the National Commission on Indigenous People (NCIP). Alegre died on the spot while Diarog is fighting for his life in a hospital.

Earlier, Fahara Kabun-talan La, 29, and Sittie Usop Abdullah, 31, were shot dead while Aisah Karon Malugka, 34, was wounded by masked suspects on a motorcycle in Cotabato City. All three were teachers at Mokamad Ali Elementary School in Barangay Tamontaka 4. The tricycle driver, Fahad Abdulwahid Abdullah, 21, was also wounded in the gun attack that occurred in full public view.

“The Lumads of Minda-nao have long been subjected to the worst forms of human rights violations and intensified oppression since the last few years of the Aquino regime’s Oplan Bayanihan,” the CPP said in the statement.

Aside from demanding justice from the Duterte administration, the communists also commanded its revolutionary organizations to carry out an investigation parallel to the government, to identify the mastermind of the killings.

“(We urge) urges the local authorities of the people’s democratic government to file appropriate charges against the criminal suspects at the soonest possible opportunity in order for the people’s courts,” the communist party ordered.