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DAVAO City–North Cotabato Rep. Nancy Catamco has been barred from entering the Haran Evacuation Center here after she had been declared persona non grata over her “derogatory statement” against the evacuees in July 14.

In an interview Wednesday, Kerlan Fanaqel, secretary general of the Pasaka Confederation of Lumad Organization in Southern Mindanao, told reporters that Catamco insulted the lumads for calling their children “stinky” and for questioning the legitimacy of the datus as leaders.

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“She can no longer set foot on our evacuation center,” he said. The indigenes are in a facility run by the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP).

Fanaqel said Catamco, chair of the House Committee on Indigenous Peoples (IPs), missed out the whole picture on the real situation of the lumads after military forces entered their respective communities.

“For taking side with military, for not listening and for refusing to understand the call of the evacuees to pull out the military from the communities, that’s why she has become the spokesperson of AFP,” the lumad group’s statement reads.

Unlike in the previous dialogues, the group added that IPs were not given due respect and understanding when Catamco spearheaded it, along with some other government agencies like the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP), Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), Commission on Human Rights (CHR), and the military.

Asked for comment, Catamco was unfazed by the declaration of persona non grata.

“I don’t belong to them,” she said during the AFP-PNP Press Corps forum at the Davao City Police Office (DCPO) Wednesday.

“I’d rather be emotional and passionate. Hindi ako marunong maglambing kung alam ko na tama ang pinaglalaban ko,” she added. (antonio colina IV of mindanews)

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