A total of 44 families, or 236 individuals, left their homes Sunday in Lagonglong, Misamis Oriental for fear of “heavy military presence” which the military explained as the operational deployment of soldiers of the 58th Infantry Battalion as part of its bayanihan program of activities to counter rebel influence.
In a phone interview, Lieutenant Janelle Diaz, the battalion’s civil-military operations officer, confirmed the evacuation of civilians who are temporarily sheltered in the gymnasium of the said town.
Diaz said the evacuees were from Sitio Camansi in Barangay Banglay and are being taken care of by the battalion’s CMO team and the Municipal Social Welfare Department.
“The evacuation was triggered by a scenario created by the New People’s Army [NPA] when they fired two shots to make it appear there was an encounter,” she said, adding the fired shots were very far from the location of the nearest government troops.
According to a report by the Higala sa Lumad Network, a support group composed of a broad range of interfaith personalities and representatives of organizations synergizing relevant capacities and resources for lumad communities under attack, the evacuation was “due to militarization.”
Higala also serves as an informal monitoring network for lumad human rights.
It said that at about 3 p.m. Sunday, the evacuees “began walking to Sitio Kawali, Brgy. Kibanban, Balingasag” presumably because they “heard gunfire some distance away from their homes.”
Higala said the evacuees “arrived in Sitio Kawali at around 6 p.m., tired and hungry.”
“That morning, 13 fully armed personnel of the 58th Infantry Battalion arrived in their community. Around lunch time, they called for a meeting informing the community that they will go around their houses to ask each family what their problems are. They will, according to them, relay the problems to the incoming president. The residents suggested doing the consultation right there and then so they could present their problems as a community. But the military did not want to conduct the consultation during the meeting, insisting that they would go from house to house and that they would stay there for two weeks,” it said.
“The community raised their concern that they would be put in danger should their ‘enemies’ attack them. They would also fear going to their farms, which are some distance from their homes, as they might either be caught in the crossfire or be accused of being a member of the rebel group. They have already heard of civilians being accused in nearby communities, detained, and tortured by the military,” Higala said.
“Residents also said after they evacuated several times because of military operations last year, they reached an agreement with Capt. Joe Patrick Martinez, spokesman of the 4th Infantry Division, that the military should camp 500 to 1,000 meters away from their community and not within their center,” it said.
Martinez is public affairs chief of the 4th Infantry Division.
“They also said that the military did not have to conduct a census as the residents there were registered voters and this is done by a different government agency. Despite the refusal of the people, the military went from house to house—they had already gone to at least four houses. Thus the residents left their community to seek safety. Two dump trucks from the provincial govenrment unit arrived in Sitio Kawali at around 11 pm to bring them to the gym of the poblacion of the Lagonglong Municipality,” the group said.
“They were only able to eat in the wee hours of Monday. The evacuees are determined to stay in their temporary sanctuary until the military leaves their community. Dismayed that the military are endangering them again, driving them out of their domains and far from their livelihood, still they would rather be evacuees than face the risks of military presence. They are angry that their decisions are not respected in their own ancestral lands,” it added.
But according to Diaz, the military should not be blamed for the evacuation because the soldiers were only in the area “to do bayanihan activities” with the residents.
“Our troops entered there on June 4 for bayanihan activities with residents. This is not the first time that the battalion was doing this as we had already done it in the past,” she said.