SECURITY forces denied on Friday accusations that they were the ones responsible for the recent burning of another indigenous peoples’ school in Sibagat, Agusan del Sur, claiming that the “soldiers” supposedly involved were fakes.
“We condemn this criminal act committed by these unknown perpetrators. Any school facility should not be an object of any attack. Perpetrators should be made to pay for the crime they committed,” Col. Alexander Macario, commander of the Philippine Army’s 401st Infantry Brigade based in Prosperidad, Agusan del Sur said in a statement.
Students and teachers from the Alternative Learning Center for Agricultural and Livelihood Development said they saw some unidentified men set fire to the teachers’ cottage and a nursery of
fruit and hardwood trees at the back of the school at 2 a.m. Thursday.
Destroyed with the school’s demo farm were books, school supplies, a sewing machine, rice stocks, a generator and audio-visual equipment.
The military claimed that the Army’s 23rd Infantry Battalion only received reports of the incident around 1 p.m. Nov. 12, but human rights groups in the community blamed the 23rd IB.
The Eastmincom statement said the initial investigation of the arson “revealed that the perpetrators disguised themselves as soldiers of the 23rd Infantry Battalion.”
Lt. Col. Lynart Castisimo, the battalion commander, claimed he received reports that there were groups who procured Army uniforms and military backpacks in one of tailoring shops in Butuan City earlier.
“It is clear that the uniforms were used by the perpetrators in the burning of Alcadev cottage. We strongly deny the involvement of our soldiers and we condemn the burning of Alcadev cottage by the lawless bandit group. We will exert our best efforts to help the PNP in the investigation and law enforcement operations in the area,” Castisimo said.
Tribal leaders who went to the site said residents reported the men asked them repeatedly why they shouldn’t burn the school, given that it “causes trouble in the community.”
“This is the height of impudence. The BS Aquino regime continues to ignore the public uproar over the lumad killings and the resounding call to pull out the military troops from the lumad communities in Mindanao and to dismantle the AFP-backed paramilitary groups. It has instead given the military carte blanche to go on a rampage against the people in remote villages,” said Karapatan secretary-general Cristina Palabay.
The school in Agusan del Sur is second branch of the agricultural learning center for indigenous people in Mindanao called the lumad, to come under attack.
In September, a teacher from the school in Lianga was killed and left in a classroom while two other lumad leaders were executed in front of terrified villagers.
Palabay said that extrajudicial killings continue, with new cases in Talaingod town, Davao del Norte and in Cabanglasan, Bukidnon being investigated.
Datu Manliro Landahay, a council member of the organization that runs lumad schools in Davao, was killed Nov. 7 by armed men identified as Donato Salangani and Maninggo Salangani, members of the Alamara paramilitary group of Alambi Salangani, under the command of the 68th IB.
On Oct. 27, in Bukidnon, Mankombete Mariano, 48, was shot and then hacked to death by Manlumakad Bocalas, a member of Dela Mance group attached to the 8th IB. Mariano’s 10-year-old grandchild survived the shooting, but saw how his grandfather was hacked in the head, in the left shoulder and left thigh, Karapatan said.
On Thursday, the military questioned the legitimacy and results of an independent investigation of the lumad killings in Mindanao supported by church-led groups, likening the probe to a New People’s Army “kangaroo court.”
The military also insisted that it was the communist NPA rebels who were behind the killing spree against lumad in Mindanao.
“The 4th Infantry Division again challenges the mandate of this alleged International Fact Finding Mission as well as the validity and legality of its supposed findings. In this case, we find the accusers acting as investigators and eventually presiding as judge, similar to an NPA kangaroo court,” Lt. Col. Rey Pasco of the Army’s 4th Infantry Division said in a statement sent to The Standard.
“We are firm that the NPA and their allied legal organizations are the primary cause of conflict among the lumad and led to their killing. The NPA want complete domination over the IP communities, and their ancestral domain being a source of their manpower and resources for their armed violence. Let us free all lumad from being victims,” he added.