"Don’t turn the table around. The Talaingod mayor is guilty of neglecting his constituents to cover up military abuses in the Ata-Manobo community,” said Cristina Palabay, Karapatan secretary general in reaction Mayor Basilio Libayao’s threat to file charges against community organizers who ‘influenced’ the Manobo communities of Brgy. Palma Gil, Talaingod town, Davao del Norte to leave their homes.
"Don’t turn the table around. The Talaingod mayor is guilty of neglecting his constituents to cover up military abuses in the Ata-Manobo community,” said Cristina Palabay, Karapatan secretary general in reaction Mayor Basilio Libayao’s threat to file charges against community organizers who ‘influenced’ the Manobo communities of Brgy. Palma Gil, Talaingod town, Davao del Norte to leave their homes.
"There were bombings, threats and harassments, illegal arrests by the 60th and 68th Infantry Battalion and the 4th Special Forces of Philippine Army. Pull-out the military from the area and there would be no reason for the Ata-Manobo to stay in unfamiliar grounds in the city,” said Palabay.
The Ata-Manobos started to leave Talaingod on March 28 and trekked to Davao City for six days to take refuge away from the atrocities of the 60th Infantry Battalion. "It’s a choice between bombs and bullets or the harsh condition during travel and in living in the city,” Palabay lamented.
Karapatan-Southern Mindanao said a 75 year-old Ata-Manobo woman Ubonoy Botod Manlaon of Sitio Bagang, Brgy. Palma Gil was illegally arrested on March 10 by soldiers and forced her to guide the troops in their search for NPA members. At night, when the soldiers encamp, Manlaon was left out in the cold, her hands and feet tied. She was fed with left-over food or none at all. Luckily, she was able to escape. Traumatized, she joined the exodus of her community to Davao City.
Military troops encroached on people’s houses and threatened them because they were believed to be members of the NPA. The soldiers also occupied the schools and public structures for their camps. On March 20, residents of Sitios Panggan, Pongpong, Brgy. Dagohoy witnessed two helicopters and four aircrafts bombed their community. The farmers scampered for safety, also fearing their farms would also be damaged.
"His offer to give sacks of rice to the evacuees would not stop military atrocities. The violations are happening under his nose. But, he chose to be the military’s mouth piece, very much like his father’s role during his rule in Talaingod," Palabay said.
Like father, like son
The Ata-Manobo’s situation today is not unlike the days when Mayor Basilio Libayao’s father, Jose Libayao, was the mayor of Talaingod. Jose Libayao, a former security guard of logging company Alcantara and Sons Inc. (Alsons) became the first mayor of Talaingod town in 1991, with Alson’s backing.
In the early ‘90s, Alsons applied for an expansion of its operations from 19,000 to 45,000 has. of land that is basically the whole of Talaingod. Jose Libayao facilitated Alson’s entry to and control of the Ata-Manobo’s resource rich ancestral lands by signing an agreement that placed Talaingod under Alson’s Integrated Forest Management Agreement.
When the indigenous peoples resisted the incursion, the military-backed Jose Libayao went on a killing spree against the opposing Ata-Manobo. In February 1994, three truckloads of soldiers from the 64th IB-PA attacked the “anti-IFMA” villages. Many Lumads fled their communities as troops burned down houses, looted harvests and slaughtered livestock.
Jose Libayao’s political career started during the martial law period as part of Marcos’s infamous PANAMIN or Presidential Assistance for National Minorities, a counterinsurgency program specifically focused on indigenous peoples. Jose Libayao was executed by members of the New People’s Army in September 2001. ###