IP leader hits leftists for calling him fake
MANILA -- Leftist organizations including progressive group BAYANUSA should be open to hear “the other side of the story” and stop harassing people standing up for the truth, a tribal leader said Thursday.
Datu Jacob Lanes, of the Mandaya tribe from Davao City, said leftist groups have “no competency” to claim what the real story of indigenous peoples (IPs) in insurgency-ridden Philippines is.
“Una po, hindi trabaho ng anumang organization ng human rights ang magvalidate kung sino ang indigenous people. Wala po silang competency para magsabi kung sino ang IP. Meron pong National Commission on Indigenous People na pwedeng magsabi, mag-validate sa ilalim ng ating batas kung sino yung IP (First of all, it’s not the job of any human rights group to validate who the real IPs are. They have no competency to say who’s the real IP. We have the National Commission on
Indigenous Peoples which can say and validate under our law),” he said in an interview at the Colonel Jesus Villamor Air Base after a dialogue with the Commanding General of the Philippine Air Force.
Lanes fired back at the claims of BAYAN-USA, which claimed that some of their Filipino-American (FilAm) members have visited the Philippines to check the situation of marginalized groups in Mindanao.
“Yung sinasabi ng BAYAN USA na galing sila ng Mindanao at nakapag-immersion sila for two weeks, hindi ibig sabihin two weeks kayo napasyal sa isang lugar ay alam niyo na ang kasaysayan nung lugar (On Bayan USA’s claim that they have been to Mindanao for two weeks, it doesn’t mean that they’ve been there for two weeks they already know the history of the place),” he added.
Lanes and seven other tribal leaders who belong to the Mindanao Indigenous People’s Council of Elders (MIPCEL) went to the United States for a speaking tour aimed at rallying the international community against the atrocities committed by the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA).
Other side
Lanes challenged leftist groups to listen to their narrative and stop shutting their stories down by launching protest rallies and disturbing forums which seek to raise discourse on the plight of the IPs.