Higaonon Nermie Lapatis is a farmer from Valencia, Bukidnon. She is among the more than 300 farmers and indigenous peoples who are with the Manilakbayan ng Mindanao. So far, they have travelled more than a thousand kilometres now going to Metro Manila.
Higaonon Nermie Lapatis is a farmer from Valencia, Bukidnon. She is among the more than 300 farmers and indigenous peoples who are with the Manilakbayan ng Mindanao. So far, they have travelled more than a thousand kilometres now going to Metro Manila.
On February 5, 2014, Lapatis was with Julieto Lauron on a motorcycle going to the village of Hindangon, Valencia City when two unidentified men on a red motorcycle overtook them, blocked their way and immediately shot Lauron and Lapatis. Lauron, who was hit on his neck, chest and stomach, immediately died, while Lapatis was hit in her right knee. The assailants quickly escaped. The men are believed to be members of the Cagayan de Oro-based 4th Infantry Division then headed by Major Gen. Ricardo Visaya.
Lapatis was in Quezon Province where hundred other members of people’s organizations in Quezon joined the Manilakbayan contingent in a protest action at the Southern Luzon Command (SOLCOM) Headquarters in Lucena City. In September 2014, BS Aquino appointed Visaya as SOLCOM chief. He is a known protégé of Gen. Jovito Palparan Jr.
“The peasants and indigenous peoples of Southern Tagalog, specifically Mindoro Occidental and Quezon, also suffered similar abuses and human rights violations under the butcher Gen. Palparan in 2002. This time, with Palparan-trained Gen. Visaya at the helm of the SOLCOM, the human rights situation in the whole Southern Tagalog is bound to worsen,” said Cristina Palabay, Karapatan secretary general.
The Visaya-commanded 4th Infantry Division, through the 8th Infantry Battalion, sowed terror in the Bukidnon and Agusan provinces. There was the killing of Mabini Manobia and Zaldy Ambayot in Bukidnon in 2013 by Alde Salusad’s paramilitary group under the 8th IB. In February, Lumad activist Datu Rolando Ambongan was killed and his nephew Janmar Ambongan Sulhayan was wounded under Gen. Visaya’s “reign of terror.” Maricel Lambon, a council member of a Lumad organization in Impasug-ong town, Bukidnon was shot and killed on August 14.
“People’s organizations in Southern Tagalog and the Manilakbayan contingent are expected to arrive in Metro Manila where a “salubong” is scheduled on November 24. They are set to hold joint activities to make the public aware of the hunger, landlessness, human rights violations and unpeace that prevail in both regions, and in the country as a whole. Their activities culminate on the International Human Rights Day in December 10,” Palabay said.
“Peace advocates, human rights defenders and progressive organizations in Manila are gearing up to welcome the Manilakbayan. Their voices should be heard. Their testimonies on landgrabbing, extrajudicial killings, and poverty because of mining and agri-corporations, supported by BS Aquino’s yellow army, the paramilitary groups, and the AFP serve as bases of the people’s judgement on the BS Aquino regime on Human Rights Day,” she added.
“The Southern Tagalog region is home of many heroes and martyrs of the revolutionary Katipunan. The Datu of Mindanao fought colonialism. The people of Southern Tagalog and Mindanao bear the imprints of courage and nationalism of their forebears. They are determined to defend their land and rights, to put an end to Oplan Bayanihan, and put BS Aquino in his proper place,” Palabay ended.