Appeal for Action: Pull-out military troops from peasants and indigenous communities in Mindanao

APPEAL FOR ACTION

CALL FOR THE
IMMEDIATE PULL-OUT OF MILITARY TROOPS FROM

THE COMMUNITIES OF
PEASANTS AND INDIGENOUS PEOPLES IN
MINDANAO

Dear
friends,

Please join
us in our call for the immediate pull-out of AFP troops from the communities of
peasants and indigenous peoples in Mindanao.
There are at least three groups of evacuees from the provinces of
Saranggani, Bukidnon and Davao del Norte. The evacuees, numbering to at least a
thousand, are mostly indigenous peoples who left their homes starting May up to
the present due to heavy military presence and intense combat operations in
their respective communities.

APPEAL FOR ACTION

CALL FOR THE
IMMEDIATE PULL-OUT OF MILITARY TROOPS FROM

THE COMMUNITIES OF
PEASANTS AND INDIGENOUS PEOPLES IN
MINDANAO

Dear
friends,

Mindanao is no longer home for the Higaonons,
for the Blaans, Ata Manobos, and all other indigenous peoples.

Their leaders are either killed by the
Philippine soldiers and paramilitary groups or slapped with trumped up criminal
charges to bring them to prison. Their self-initiated schools are closed down.
Their communities are bombed and they are evacuating.

AFP combat operations displace
Blaan tribe

Around 54
Blaan households from three villages in Brgy. Upper Suyan, Malapatan,
Sarangani Province evacuated on May 18 due to the encampment of the 73rd
Infantry Battalion in their communities. Half of the evacuees are children.
Some 200 individuals in a nearby village of Sufan, Brgy. Pag-asa, Alabel,
Sarangani Province also wanted to evacute but were blocked by the military. The
residents sought safety at the Sitio Sufan Elementary School.

After a few days, some 50 families transfered
to General Santos City, at the United Church of Christ in the Philippines
(UCCP) compound while some 200 Blaan remained at the Sitio Sufan Elementary
school.

The massive military operation of the 73rd IB started on March 27. Soldiers
forcibly entered the houses of Blaans and even threw out their personal belongings.
A fact-finding mission documented cases of human rights violations since then—threat, harassment,
interrogation, food/economic blockade, torture, hamleting, violation of domicile,
illegal search and detention, destruction and divestment of property, indiscriminate
firing, forced servitude, military encampment in public facilities and forcible
evacuation.

On March 30, at around
4:00 p.m., eight bombs were dropped on a populated area in a nearby village.
The soldiers fired machine guns four times. Crops, animals, and the community’s
source of water were destroyed by the bombing. This forced the residents
to flee.

Paramilitary group attempts to sow terror

In Cabanglasan and Malaybalay City, Bukidnon, the De la Mance
siblings are terrorizing the residents causing 100 Higaonons to evacuate, too.

Brothers Dante, Romulo, Dominador and Haiward de la Mance, known
leaders of an armed group attached to the Philippine Army, are involved in the
extrajudicial killing of their own cousin Frenie Landasan on March 28, 2015 at
Purok 3 Brgy. Dalacutan, Cabanglasan, Bukidnon. Landasan was chairperson of
Dalacutan-Higaonon Tribal Association.

The killing of Landasan was a retaliatory act of the De la Mance’s
for the death of their kin Dorlito de la Mance, who was punished by the New
People’s Army for his various crimes against the people.

The Dela Mance brothers were also responsible for the attempted
killing of Rosella Cahanggan and her nephew and three minor children, including
a baby. The group was hiking along the provincial road in Malaybalay when the
ambush took place. Members of the Dela Mance group strafed Cahanggan and her
companions, which almost killed her nephew who was hit by a bullet on the right
shoulder.

With the series of killings and frustrated killings, and the
continuous harassment and threats from the De la Mance group, some 20 families
or at least 200 individuals left their village on June 8 and went to the Provincial Capitol in Malaybalay City,
Bukidnon.

Harassment and closure
of Lumad learning centers

In Davao City, hundreds of Ata Manobo
families from Kapalong and Talaingod, Davao del Norte have evacuated to the United
Church of Christ in the Philippines to get away from the continuous threats and
harassment of the military and paramilitary groups.

The 68^th IB-PA is relentless in
its campaign to close down the alternative learning schools of the Salugpungan
Ta Tanu Igkanugon Community Learning Center (STTICLC). The military has used
the schools as its camp and threatened to kill Salugpungan teachers. The
tagging of the schools as “NPA school” went as far as lobbying with the
Department of Education to close down the Lumad learning centers and to open a
similar alternative school which will be operated by the military.

The continuous terror brought by the
presence of the AFP and its paramilitary groups led to the evacuation of the
Ata-Manobo. While in the city, their loudest cry carries hundreds of years of
the elders’ aspiration to educate their children.

For the Lumad, the establishment of the Salugpungan
alternative learning schools is a priceless gift of education for the next
generation, which the elders never had. These schools bear their hope to uplift
their lives away from poverty and illiteracy. The schools teach the children to
read, write, count, analyze, criticize, and fight in defense of their tribe and
their land. ###

We call on
friends and human rights advocates to send letters of concern calling for:

1.
The
immediate pull-out of the AFP units operating from the Lumad and peasant
communities.

2.
Justice
to all victims of human rights violations.

3.
Indemnification
of victims of human rights violations especially those whose properties and
sources of livelihood were destroyed during military operation.

4.
The
withdrawal of Oplan Bayanihan, the Philippine government’s counterinsurgency
program that victimizes innocent and unarmed civilians.

5.
The
PH government and its state security forces to stop labelling and targeting
civilians and self-help projects as “members of the NPA”, “enemies of the state”,
and “NPA projects”.

6.
The
Philippine government to observe the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and
all the major Human Rights instruments that it is a party and signatory to.

You may
send your communications to the following agencies through mail, e-mail or fax:

H.E. Benigno C. Aquino III

President
of the Republic

Malacañang Palace,

JP Laurel St., San Miguel

Manila Philippines

Voice: (+632) 564 1451 to 80

Fax: (+632) 742-1641 / 929-3968

E-mail: op@president.gov.ph

Sec. Teresita
Quintos-Deles

Presidential Adviser on the Peace
Process

Office
of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP)