MANILA — While President Arroyo dined for $20,000 in New York, Manobo children only have lugaw, bread and food rations at the evacuation center at the Diocese Pastoral Center in Tandag, Surigao del Sur.
(Photo courtesy of Mapasu and Kalumaran / bulatlat.com)
Some 1,700 Manobo lumads from Diatagon, Surigao del Sur were displaced last July 18 for fear when the Armed Forces’ 58th Infantry Battalion entered their villages a week earlier and forcibly recruited the lumads including schoolchildren into the lumad paramilitary Task Force Gantangan – Bagani Force.
(Photo courtesy of Mapasu and Kalumaran / bulatlat.com)
Two dialogues facilitated by the local government between the lumads and the military have faltered when the military led by the 401st Infantry Brigade refused to accede to the lumads’ demand to pullout the troops and stop the recruitment, insisting that they push through their “peace and development” activities.
(Photo courtesy of Mapasu and Kalumaran / bulatlat.com)
War and survival is taking its toll not only on the Manobos but on the people of Tandag. Concerned sectors have to supply 18 sacks of rice everday to feed the evacuees.
(Photo courtesy of Mapasu and Kalumaran / bulatlat.com)
Ironically, the Manobos spent the United Nations International Day of World Indigenous Peoples last August 9 in the evacuation.
Lumad children clearly see the empty rice pot and sardine can, but they still try to scrape off whatever is left of the contents to relieve their hunger. (Photo by Romeo Dollente / bulatlat.com)
The lumads are calling the national government to stop the military operations in lumad communities and forced recruitment of the lumads. (Bulatlat.com)
