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By BEN SERRANO,
Correspondent

BUTUAN City — Anti-mining activist and tribal leader Veronico “Nico” Lapsay Delamente, 27, who was shot dead at around 12:20 noon last Friday in Punta Naga, Barangay Caagdianao in Surigao de Norte has been buried on Jan. 23 in his tribal village.

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Gunmen wearing masks shot a vocal anti-mining lumad leader in public on Jan. 20. Tribal leaders and human rights advocates in Caraga region condemned the recent attack which also hurt the tribal leader’s niece who was near.

In a joint statement, Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights (Karapatan-Caraga), College Editor’s Guild of the Philippines, and the Kahugpungan sa Lumadnong mga Organisasyon sa Caraga (Kasalo) condemned the killing of Veronico ‘Nico’ Lapsay Delamente, 27, leader of a Mamanwa tribe in Claver. Delamente was the provincial coordinator of Katribu Partylist since 2010.

The four-year-old niece of Delamente is still confined at a private hospital in Surigao City, Kasalo spokesperson Tina Gomez told Gold Star Daily.

Kasalo members said witnesses told police investigators that on Saturday two men wearing masks, riding a motorcycle, approached Delamente who was in a crowded area and shot him several times in different parts of his body. A child who was close by was also hit by one of the bullets. The two gunmen then fled after the shooting.

The stunned witnesses rushed Delamente to a hospital in Surigao City where he died several minutes after they arrived.

Kasalo members were surprised the assailants were not apprehended upon leaving the area since there is a military detachment of the Task Force Diamond of the Army at the entrance of the road leading to Punta Naga.

Surigao del Norte Provincial Director Senior Supt. Anthony Maghari said they have been investigating the killing of Delamente and are currently eyeing different motives. Maghari hinted they are also looking at the brewing conflict between two tribal groups in the area on royalty fees over a mining operations in their area.

Relatives of Delamente said they suspect the killing may have stemmed from their tribal community’s clamor for a change in leadership of the Ampantrento — a group allegedly supporting the mining operations in the area.

Delamente was also council member or one of the tribal council leaders of Ampantrento, an NCIPecognized organization of the Lumad people in Claver. Lapsay with some tribal council leaders opposed the group of another Mamanwa leader Datu Reynante Buklas who favored expansion of mining operations allegedly the índigenes’ sacred grounds.

In a separate statement , Kasalo alleged Delamente earned the ire of National Commission on Indigenous People (NCIP) in the region when he and some lumad leaders complained about an alleged collusion taking place between mining companies and other lumad groups.

“The 1% royalty from mining companies for the lumad people in Claver have been a source of conflict between tribes and has destroyed the unity of the indigenous people not only in their villages but in the entire Caraga,” Kasalo’s statement reads in part.

Delamente is the 9th lumad leader in Caraga Region killed since the enactment of the Indigenes People’s Rights Act of 1995 which supposedly provides empowerment to the indigenes.

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