Armed men attack Mandaya village, kill chieftain and two others

 

Photo source: Eden Licayan

CARAGA, Davao Oriental, January 1, 2017 – Armed men believed to be Maoist NPA terrorists attacked the Mandaya tribal village at Sitio Calapagan, Brgy. Poblacion here and murdered the tribal chieftain and two relatives about 11:30 p.m. on Friday.

Police identified the victims as Likid (Chieftain) Copertino Mabayanban Banugan, also known as Likid Coper and Datu Coper, 53, chieftain of the Mandaya Tribal Council covering Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title (CADT)-01 in Caraga and part of Bataan town in Compostela Valley Province, his 44-year old brother Ramon, and nephew Benny.

Pursuing government troops reportedly recovered a wounded from among the attackers but it cannot be independently verified.

Responding policemen engaged the attackers in a firefight as they withdrew towards the neighboring town of Manay.

Under cover of darkness, an undetermined number of unidentified armed men arrived in the village onboard two vans and threacherously attacked the houses of Banugan and his relatives.

The identities of the attackers are yet to be established but all indications and motives point to the NPA due to prior incidents.

Personnel of the Caraga Municipal Police Station under PSInsp. Anthony Gumban heard the gunfires and responded onboard a patrol car but was blocked with burnt tires and spikes at P.M. Subrecarey st. here.

The policemen were forced to walk towards the area and catched up with the withdrawing attackers who engaged them in a firefight but managed to escape towards Manay onboard the two vans.

Police recovered from the crime scene a magazine for KG9 machine pistol with three live 9 mm ammunitions, three live ammunitions for M203 Grenade Launcher, five caliber 5.56 mm ammunitions for M16 rifle, and three empty shells of spent M203 ammunition.

Banugan as chieftain was the main proponent of the Calapagan Mandaya Tribal Council policy declaring the entire CADT-01 as a “peace zone” that prohibits the entry of all armed groups.

Sometime last June, some 200 NPA men from New Bataan town in Compostela Valley, Cateel, Boston and Baganga towns, all in Davao Oriental, entered the CADT-01 area and knocked on the doors of residents including that of the late Likid Banugan.

The Tribal Chieftain reported the incident and the NPA’s meddling on purely indigenous people (IP) matters to the media.

Local newspapers particularly Sun*Star Davao come up with a story by-lined by its editor Estella Estremera. The Philippine Daily Inquirer also published a story filed by its Davao-based Correspondent Frinston Lim on the incident and Banugan’s complaint against the NPA.

The incident was repeated last November but the Tribal Council and its elders put it under wrap so as not to worsen the situation.

The NPA accused Banugan and the whole Tribal Council as “assets” of the AFP.

In its earlier statement, the Council clearly stated that they support peace & development efforts but they are against any armed group to enter in their community as they support neither the military nor the NPA.

The NPA repeatedly threatened Banugan to cease organizing the community for peace and development.
Banugan had formed three organizations: one each for the IP leaders and elders, for women, and for the youth.

Apparently the NPA disliked these sectoral groups outside their control.

Another possible motive of the NPA in killing Banugan was the Tribal Council’s decision on a land conflict of two families in Sitio Sabang where the NPA favored the losing family against the Tribal Council’s decision.

Under the leadership of Banugan, the Tribal Council vehemently detests the meddling of the NPA in the affairs of the IP especially on its decisions and those of its elders.

News via (SPRINT NEWS)

Cease all Executions

At least 23 drug suspects were recently killed since the inauguration of President Duterte on June 30. Among these, 22 suspected drug related killings were done outside police operations and the increasing number of killings have alarmed human rights advocates. Edre Olalia, secretary general of the National Union of people’s lawyers, said the killings must be halted.

“There’s a danger that Duterte’s electoral victory may be seen as a symbolic victory for a notion that’s already spreading in the Philippines: that extrajudicial vigilante-style killings of suspected criminals is a legitimate approach to crime control,” said Phelim Kine, deputy director of Human Rights Watch for Asia.

Seemingly, this action taken by the “vigilantes” is in consonance with the NPA’s implementation of its ‘Kangaroo Court’, a justice system wherein the one that tries is also the one that executes alleged offenders.  This also manifests the NPA’s gross disregard for human rights.

President Duterte’s hard-line stance on crime is wildly popular in Davao. Raul Tolentino, 82, who has practiced law here since the 1960s, said that popularity stemmed from the 1980s, when Communist insurgents plagued the region and the city was notorious for bloody mayhem. Mr. Tolentino recalled armed rebel groups entering the city at will, and criminal gangs engaging in shootouts in broad daylight.

For more than 40 years, the NPA’s ‘armed struggle’ has not solved any of the country’s problems but has caused even more problems.  Four decades of armed struggle have also brought senseless deaths and miseries to hundreds of thousands of Filipinos and destroyed the future of many of our youths.  The use of violence in pursuing political, economic and social objectives is really not acceptable and should be condemned.

Claims by the NPA that defendants receive a fair hearing during its people’s court proceedings are not supported by the facts, Human Rights Watch said. Philip Alston, the former United Nations special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions who investigated extrajudicial killings in the Philippines in 2007, described the people’s courts as “either deeply flawed or simply a sham.”

The NPA has long admitted to killing government officials and civilians whom the NPA deems to have engaged in acts “against the people.” They have also killed allegedly traitorous NPA or Communist Party members.

On April 21, 2014, NPA rebels shot and killed Mayor Carlito Pentecostes Jr. of Gonzaga town, Cagayan province.  On July 27, 2012, they killed Datu Causing Ogao, a leader of an indigenous people’s group, in Davao City. On February 28, 2011, they killed Jeffrey Nerveza, a civilian, in Albay, Bicol. On August 19, 2011, the NPA killed Raymundo “Monding” Agaze in Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental. On July 13, 2010, NPA members shot and killed Mateo Biong, Jr., a former mayor of Giporlos town, Eastern Samar. That same month, they shot and killed Sergio Villadar, a sugar cane farmer, in Escalante City, Negros Occidental. All of these people, the NPA claimed, had been found guilty by its people’s courts.

In its October 25, 2015 statement announcing the deaths of the Otazas, the NPA said it is waging a “people’s war” and it “has been pursuing revolutionary justice by meting appropriate capital punishment against war criminals to remove the continuation of the human rights violations and render justice.”

As a party to an internal armed conflict, the NPA and Vigilante groups are obligated to abide by international humanitarian law, including common article 3 to the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and its Second Additional Protocol of 1977 (Protocol II), to which the Philippines is party. International humanitarian law prohibits killing civilians, mistreating anyone in custody, and convicting anyone in proceedings that do not meet international fair trial standards. Article 6 of Protocol II specifies that criminal courts must be independent and impartial, and the accused shall have “all necessary rights and means of defense,” among other guarantees. Those tried by people’s courts are typically convicted in absentia, thus denied the right to be tried in one’s presence before an impartial court.

We call on the NUPL and other Human Rights Advocates to condemn the summary executions or killings of helpless civilians. The NPA and vigilantes should end this charade of unjust ‘people’s courts’ and cease all executions.

Sources:

https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/10/27/philippines-rebel-executions-violate-international-law

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/18/world/asia/rodrigo-duterte-philippines.html?_r=0

 

Religious leader stabbed to death by NPA rebels

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY — A former policeman who founded a religious group was believed killed by New People’s Army (NPA) rebels on Monday, authorities said Tuesday.

Stabbed to death was Francisco Baguiz, a retired police officer and founder of Apocalypse International Ministry, Inc. (AIM, Inc.) based in Sitio Sioan in Barangay Malinao in Gingoog City.

Police said Baguiz was driving his car when he was flagged down by armed men wearing Army uniforms in Sitio Kibalikin in Malinao.

SPO4 Teddy Macarayo of the Gingoog police said Baguiz got out of the vehicle and must have thought that it was soldiers who flagged him down.

Macarayo said Baguiz was handcuffed and brought by the armed men to a secluded area where he was stabbed four times. He did not reach the hospital alive.

Witnesses identified the suspects as NPA rebels, police added.

The NPA has not issued a statement on Baguiz’s killing yet. -newsinfo.inquirer.net