Reyes’ Lumads vs Lumads Scheme Opposed

The Philippine military has been recruiting Lumads to fight the New People’s Army (NPA) in Mindanao. Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes has reportedly issued a directive boosting the recruitment – an act which is now being opposed by the Lumads themselves.

By Bulatlat.com

A broad alliance of lumad organizations in Mindanao is opposing the military’s scheme of recruiting Lumads as military and paramilitary elements under the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).

The Pasaka Regional Lumad Confederation scored Defense Sec. Angelo Reyes who they charged as the brain behind the scheme.

Pasaka Secretary General Datu Monico Cayog said the plan runs contrary to certain provisions of the Constitution itself.

Cayog’s statement is in reaction to Reyes’s pronouncement during a recent Lumad summit in Davao City that 5% of the AFPs recruitment quota will be given to indigenous peoples.

Cayog further said that the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA) also contains provisions contradictory to the scheme, for instance, under Chapter 5, Section 22 which prohibits recruitment of indigenous peoples “in particular for use against other Indigenous Cultural Communities ICCs/Indigenous Peoples IPs.”        

Cayog said the scheme will further sow divisiveness among Lumads in the communities instead of providing “peace and security” as belied by Reyes.

“It will only worsen conflict in Lumad areas, as Lumads are being used by military to go after their fellow Lumads. There are already many instances when Lumad Cafgumen and elements of the paramilitary group ALAMARA, harassed and killed fellow Lumads, in military operations launched by Army regulars in Lumad ancestral lands,” Cayog said.

Cayog added that in fact there are already cases lodged at the Commission on Human Rights (CHR)  involving human rights violations perpetrated by Lumad paramilitary elements, particularly the Alamara, along  with regular military elements during operations in the hinterlands.

Likewise, he cited cases where Lumads themselves have been turned into hound dogs and human shields by the regular military elements during their operations. These cases, Cayog stressed should not be ignored anymore. “At the rate Lumads are getting killed in the process, the effect is the so-called ‘ethnocide,’ an unfortunate thing for Lumads whose lives continue to face extinction, either by physical elimination perpetrated by the AFP elements, or by so-called ‘development activities’ which is unfit and destructive to their indigenous systems.” Bulatlat.com 

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