HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
All-out war in Quezon
Minors Not Spared
Fifteen-year-olds Kennedy Abello, Joey Imperial and Jefferson Paraiso were
up at dawn on June 7 to gather coconuts to earn money for class opening in
Quezon province. But soldiers coming in from an encounter with rebels took
the boys and charged them and three other coconut farmers with murder,
frustrated murder and rebellion.
BY DABET CASTAńEDA
Bulatlat
|
Fifteen-year old Kennedy
Abello should have been in his second year in high school now in his
hometown in Guinyangan, province of Quezon (255 kms south of Manila).
However, he and two other
school boys his age were forced to stop schooling as they face murder,
frustrated murder and rebellion charges at the Municipal Trial Court in
Calauag, same province.
“Ano ba yun?” was all
that Kennedy could muster to say when asked about the cases filed against
them.
Coconut
farmers
Kennedy, Joey Imperial and
Jefferson Paraiso, all 15 years old, are young coconut farmers. They walk
one-and-a-half hours from their hometown in Guinyangan to Barangay
(village) Pisipis in Lopez, Quezon to gather coconuts for copra.
They sell copra for P12 a
kilo or P600 per sack to traders in Guinyangan. Sixty percent of their
earnings go directly to their landlord while the boys share the rest of
the 40 percent. On the average, Kennedy said they take home P150 each for
four days work.
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Black propaganda material Red-smearing
Karapatan and its Southern Tagalog secretary-general Dorris Cuario |
On June 7, the boys woke up
at 2 a.m. and started gathering coconuts in Barangay (village) Pisipis. At
around 6 a.m., the three, together with their relatives Hildert Imperial,
19, Fernando Torres, 43, and Nonilon Paro, were almost done with their
day’s work when they heard a gunshot from nearby.
At first, Kennedy said they
did not bother to check what it was.
“Hindi kami umalis kasi
kailangan namin hakutin ang niyog para maibenta,” he said. ”Malapit na
kasi ang pasukan, kailangan namin ng pang-enroll.” (We didn’t leave
because we still had to haul the coconuts. School was near and we needed
money for enrollment.)
Encounter
However, they started to pack
their belongings when a series of gunfire ensued.
“Sinako na namin yung niyog.
Hinila na ni
Joey yung kalabaw,”
Kennedy said of what he could remember. (We put the coconuts in the sack.
Joey pulled the carabao.)
They waited for about two
hours for the gunfight to subside before they decided to walk to
Guinyangan to sell their copra.
Media reports said an
encounter ensued between soldiers from the 76th Infantry
Battalion of the Philippine Army (IB PA) and New People’s Army guerrillas
in the said town.
The group was headed for the
town proper when soldiers stopped them.
“Tinawag kami ng mga sundalo
tapos pinadapa kami at pinagapang papalapit sa kanila,” the young boy
said. (The soldiers called us, told us to lie down and crawl towards
them.)
The soldiers beat up the six
coconut farmers as soon as they got close. “Pinatayo kami, tinutukan ng
baril, sinuntok at sinipa,” Kennedy said. (They made us stand up, they
pointed their guns at us, then punched and kicked us.)
Kennedy said the soldiers
then forced him and Joey to carry backpacks while Torres and Paro had to
carry a generator each on their backs.
Meanwhile, Kennedy said the
soldiers used the farmers’ wooden cart to carry the body of a soldier who
was shot dead during the encounter.
The six were then forced
inside a military truck and brought to the Calauag Municipal Hall where
they were detained on charges of murder, frustrated murder and rebellion.
Kennedy, Joey and Jefferson
are now out on bail while the three adults are still detained.
Detachment
On July 14, soldiers set-up a
military detachment in the village hall of Brgy. Mal-ay, Lopez, Quezon, a
report from Karapatan said. This was after a fact-finding mission team led
by Karapatan stayed in the village from June 7 to 14.
The team responded to the
residents of the villages of Pansol and Calantipayan in Lopez town and the
villages of San Vicente, Binangbang, Cawayanan and Camohaguin in Gumaca
town who asked for support against rights abuses of soldiers conducting
counter-insurgency operations in the area. Villagers reported to Karapatan
that soldiers tagged them as NPA members and pressured them to surrender
at the army detachment.
Some 200 soldiers from
Mindanao were deployed in Mal-ay village to augment the 16th IB
PA. The soldiers began a census on July 16, and required residents to
submit pictures of family members.
Others arrested
Dorris Cuario, Karapatan
(Alliance for the Advancement of Peoples’ Rights) secretary general for
Southern Tagalog reported the arrest of 16 civilians in Brgy. Veronica,
Lopez, Quezon at 3 p.m., July 18. Soldiers arrested the 16 after another
firefight with NPA guerrillas in the village on that day.
As of presstime, only 11
individuals have been named. They are: a certain Buenvenido, Arven Malinao,
Vicente Malinao, Jayson Argodo,
Gena Soriano, Edmund Cuaresma,
Norman Musa, Nono
Nocito, Wald Gimenez, Emo Lucito and a young 12-year old girl, Mae Argodo.
Initial reports from
Karapatan said those arrested were brought to the 201st IBPA in
Brgy. Silang, Calauag, Quezon, where Karapatan members were able to talk
to the 11.
Cuario reported that the
victims were taken pictures while they wore nameplates and were forced to
sign blank documents. Soldiers took the victims’ five axes, rice, six
chickens and a dog.
They were then brought to the
detachment of the 76th IBPA in Sitio Ibul, Brgy. San Francisco,
Lopez, Quezon. There, they were again forced to sign blank documents,
Cuario added.
Priority area
Quezon province is one of the
priority areas named by the military when President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
declared an “all-out war” against the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP)
and its armed wing, the NPA.
However, Cuario reported that
most of the victims are innocent civilians or known activists in their
region. From 2001, Karapatan-ST has recorded 137 killed and 24
disappeared. Eight of those killed were human rights workers.
Residents in villages where
new military detachments have been set up complained that their movements
in their communities have been restricted because of the military
presence, Cuario said. Most of the farmers said they could not go their
farms while students are afraid to go out and play.
For Kennedy, Joey and
Jefferson, their studies will have to wait as they have seeked refuge in a
religious institution in Manila. “Natatakot kami umuwi. Hindi muna kami
mag-aaral hanggat hindi tapos ang kaso,” Kennedy said. (We are afraid
to go home. We can’t continue schooling until the case is finished.)
Bulatlat
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