A step closer to HOME

MONTHS and months of idling in a place once raided by the authorities and the attempted arson of the compound, the once displaced Lumads of Haran hope to return to their communities.

During President Rodrigo Duterte’s first State of the Nation Address (Sona) last July 25, the remaining Lumads who didn’t join the Manilakbayan march also didn’t miss the opportunity to hear and watch the president’s first Sona from their little television inside the UCCP Haran compound. Despite the inevitable rain bursts, men, women and even children were hooked as Duterte started his speech. But it comes with a problem -- majority of the evacuees can barely understand the English language.

Despite having that difficulty of comprehending the president’s longest speech in the history of all Sonas, there was one thing that made the Lumads cry with happiness, it was the declaration of the unilateral ceasefire with the communist rebels.

Jong Monzon, secretary-general of Pasaka in Southern Mindanao, said Duterte has gained the people's heart after the declaration of the unilateral ceasefire.

It means that military forces in lumad communities could be pulled out.

The pull out order of military forces from lumad communities in Davao Region would make a difference.

"We hope to hear that Duterte will order the pull out of military from our communities, it would be a moral boost to the lumad evacuees here in Haran," Monzon added.

It is evident that all evacuees want to go home and live a normal life wihtout fear of bullets and death.

Thus, all evacuees are praying that there will come a time that war will no longer be an option.