UCCP leaders to sue police for inaction over compound assault

UNITED Church of Christ of the Philippines (UCCP) bishops intend filing s case against the police for reported negligence when they allowed outsiders to “dismantle” some shanties inside the Haran compound along Fr. Selga Street, Barangay 8-A.

Lumad families from Kapalong and Talaingod, Davao del Norte and San Fernando in Bukidnon have been staying in the area since 2014 when they escaped the alleged military hamletting of their communities.

In an interview with Davao Today, UCCP Bishop Hamuel Tequis said that police officers only stood by when around 30 women and men—which the Pasaka Group Confederation of Lumads claimed were members of the Alamara— stormed the compound at around 9 a.m. They tore down the chicken wire, creating a hole big enough for a person to go through.

“We already asked the help from the CHR (Commission on Human Rights),” he said.

One man was caught by photograph wielding what appeared to be a bolo, amplifying the tension which lasted for several minutes. He was held back by his companions, however.

The evacuees were herded to the main building, farthest from the gate, supposedly for their safety. The group that tried to charge the compound was reportedly distressed relatives who wanted to rescue their loved ones inside.

A around noon, Department of Social Welfare and Development officials arrived to provide intervention. Davao City Police

Office head, Col. Kirby Kraft, was also at the scene to make sure nobody got hurt. The police officers also told UCCP officials and the organizers inside to allow them to speak to their relatives inside.

Meanwhile, those who want to go home should be allowed to leave with their relatives.

As of press time, nobody was arrested.

Around lunchtime, the UCCP released an advisory for a scheduled press conference at 1 p.m. However, the compound was already on lockdown. Traffic was rerouted and journalists were barred from going near the gate.

Inside the compound, Bishop Tequis and tribal members sat stoically on monobloc chairs behind a long table for a press conference that would eventually be canceled.

The timing of the assault is not lost on everybody.

On Jan. 15, the Regional Peace and Order Council of Region XI approved a resolution for the immediate closure of the UCCP Haran Center. It is not clear how many families are inside the compound now. But at its peak, the numbers swelled to 400.

Davao Oriental Gov. Nelson Dayanghirang, RPOC XI chairperson, said the government could not sit idly by while the Lumads inside Haran continue to be exploited by the communist group and its legal fronts.

He said that organizers should be sued for child abuse, serious illegal detention, and human trafficking.

“We are urging the concerned deaths of land and environmental defenders were due to alleged “rivalry between claimants.”

“That happens if there are conflicts among claimants to a particular land. Killings occur because of the viciousness of the rivalry between the claimants,” presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo said in a Palace briefing on July 30.

Fighting for their ancestral land

On the Ned killings in December 2017, Pamplona recalled seeing hundreds of empty and live shells of high-powered firearms during a fact-finding mission to the Lumad community shortly after the Datu Victor and seven others were killed.

“All these Indigenous Peoples wanted were to be able to reclaim their ancestral land and live in peace,” he said. “They rely on this land for their livelihoods and traditions, and I will not just stand by while indigenous communities are brutally cut down for defending their way of life.”

Pamplona said that while the military deployment “could not be questioned since it was a martial law period,” the killings of Danyan and company were “clear gross human rights violations.” The Lumads’ long struggle for their ancestral lands has sustained through the years, , he added, but at the expense of the lives of defenders such as Danyan. Pamplona noted that the key to free environmental and land defenders in Mindanao from the climate of fear brought about by martial law is for Duterte to lift it.

So far, Duterte has been mum on the appeal of the rights defenders to lift martial law. But Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana last month said he was not recommending a fourth extension of martial law. He reiterated this on December 4, stressing it has taken too long.

Duterte declared martial law all over Mindanao’s 27 provinces and 33 cities for 60 days through Proclamation 216 issued on May 23, 2017 in Moscow where he was visiting. The declaration came about eight hours after the first shots were fired in Marawi City on Day 1 of the Siege.

When the 60-day period expired on July 22, Duterte sought and was granted an extension until December 31, 2017, and sought two more year-long extensions that Congress granted until yearend 2019.

Ready to die

Over a decade ago, Datu Danyan, while pointing to the coffee plantation in their community, told this reporter that they were not afraid to sacrifice their lives to reclaim their land.

“We are ready to die for our ancestral land if push comes to shove,” he said.

Danyan and seven others paid with their lives on December 3, 2017, in the hands of the military under martial law.

Several religious, human rights and environmental groups openly condemned and demanded justice for their deaths.

Lita Wali, Danyan’s sister, blamed the military for what she referred to as a “massacre.”

“I was cooking lunch. We heard volleys of gunshots and my agencies to file appropriate charges,” he said in a Philippine News Agency report.

The government already initiated several attempts to rescue the families inside and bring them home to their communities.

In May last year, the municipality of Kapalong launched a daring rescue by sending one dump truck to the compound. They managed to bring 31 individuals back to their homes, who climbed over the fence undetected by the marshals inside.

Jamal Magantor, the Kapalong municipal information officer, said the rescued Lumads are already back with their relatives and families.

In 2015, a botched interagency rescue resulted in two injured cops and 10 Lumads when the organizers managed to ward off government officials and police officers from the compound. brother rushed out of the house to see what’s happening. He was gunned down. There was no exchange of gunfire,” she recalled. Danyan was carrying a homemade firearm at that time, which his relatives said he usually used for self and communal defense.

Danyan was believed to have been killed to stifle opposition to the coffee plantation and the proposed coal mining project in their ancestral domain, Sister Susan Bolanio, Executive Director of the Oblate of Notre Dame’s Hesed Foundation, Inc., said.

Tagging him as a communist rebel or supporter was supposedly part of the plot to silence him forever. Bolanio added.

Bolanio’s foundation has been providing livelihood assistance and helping the community in their struggle to reclaim their lands.

The nun, who herself was tagged last year as a communist by a group linked to the military, denied allegations she and Danyan were rebels.

Target

Complaints were filed against the military commanders responsible for the operation where two soldiers were also killed. But the officers insisted that the tribal chieftain and his companions were supporters or members of the communist movement and that they were killed in a legitimate military operation.

Reiterating his call for the lifting of martial law in Mindanao, Pamplona, the 2018 Soros awardee, pledged to continue assisting the Lumads in their struggle to reclaim their ancestral land.

Erlan Deluvio, Commission on Human Rights-12 director, described Danyan, as “the power and strength behind his people’s struggle for their ancestral land.”

“To weaken the struggle, he was naturally made the target,” the lawyer said.

After conducting an investigation, the CHR held the military liable “for their utter failure to exert earnest efforts in distinguishing combatants from non-combatants under the Principles of Distinction of the International Humanitarian Law,” Deluvio noted.

The Philippine Daily Inquirer reported on July 27, 2018 that the National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL) in Manila filed murder charges before the Department of Justice against soldiers allegedly responsible for the deaths of Danyan and seven others.

In its three-page complaint, the NUPL said their clients, relatives of the slain victims, relocated to Metro Manila due to security concerns and the alleged intensified militarization in their community as a consequence of martial law.

Lt. Col. Seño said no formalbeen filed against the troops of the 27th and 33rd Infantry Battalions.

Pamplona said Danyan’s immediate family opted against filing charges for fear of retaliation from the military.

In a martial law setting, that fear is even more pronounced, Pamplona added. (Bong S. Sarmiento / MindaNews)