5 lumads mistaken for NPAs killed; family demands justice

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (PNA) – The family of the five indigenous persons or lumads reportedly mistaken for New People’s Army (NPA) combatants and killed in Bukidnon in the wake of an encounter between military and rebel forces last Wednesday are asking for justice.

In a press conference here Monday, Eryo Inahan, Chairman of the Manobo Farmers Association in Pangantucan, Bukidnon, said that the victims, who allegedly died in military hands in Pangantucan, Bukidnon last Wednesday, were innocent civilians.

“We want the military to clear the names of the victims because they were not NPA rebels as alleged by the military,” Inahan told the local press.

Inahan said that the oldest among the victims was a blind 72-year-old man and the youngest was a 14-year-old, all members of the Manobo clan, an indigenous tribe in Bukidnon.

He identified the victims as Mateo Samia, 72, brothers Wilmer and Elmer Simena, Ibe Samia and the 14-year old Kadong Samia.

Inahan said that Lontoy Samia, 15, the elder brother of Kadong Samia, managed to escape to tell his story about the alleged massacre.

Lontoy alleged that the military shot them one-by-one after they went down from their house on orders of the military, Inahan said.

Capt. Patrick Martinez, the spokesperson of the Army’s Fourth Infantry Division, said that they encountered a group of armed rebels in the village of Mandog Mendez, nine kilometers from the town of Pangantucan last Wednesday.

He said that the Scene of the Crime Operatives (SOCO) in the municipal police station in Pangantucan conducted an investigation of the incident and submitted an official report about the death of the victims.

Based on the SOCO report, the military recovered 19 backpacks, an AK-47 rifle, and the bodies of the five persons in the encounter site, Martinez said.

“While the military laments the unfortunate incident, the family of the victims has the right to call for an investigation – it is their right,” Martinez said in response to the accusation of the Manobo tribesmen association.