By ARTHUR L. ALLAD-IW
Northern Dispatch
BAGUIO CITY – Pupils in the declared peace-zone town of Sagada, Mountain Province suffered most when elements of the Cordillera police and the Philippine Air Force pounded the Demang communal forest with bombs and machine guns to destroy alleged camps of the New People’s Army (NPA).
School and municipal officials said that pupils in the public schools of the northern villages of Sagada namely Aguid, Fidelisan, Pide, Tanulong and Bangaan were traumatized when police conducted ground operations, aerial bombings and strafing, August 30.
The bombing and strafing came after an encounter between government troops and NPA rebels on August 29 at the Bandong Hill near the boundaries of Mainit, Bontoc and the northern barangays of Sagada and Tubo, Abra. Two police officers, Primo Marcelo and Romel Sagot, were injured. The two were transported by helicopter to the Baguio General Hospital in Baguio City for treatment.
Sources said that two MG520 helicopter gunships dropped the bombs and strafed the forested area in Sagada, only two kilometers away from Sagada’s northern villages of Aguid and Fidelisan. The helicopters allegedly dropped four bombs and strafed the forests twice.
Parents and teachers said the pupils were shocked and traumatized as they witnessed the bombings, strafing, and ground operations. An official of the Department of Education (DepEd) said that the pupils panicked and cried, pleading their teachers to allow them to run home but they were contained to the classrooms and school premises.
Milton Marrero, a DepEd superintendent of Sagada, said the teachers were told not to allow the pupils to move out from the school premises particularly during the bombing and strafing. He added that some students live in the outer subvillages where they have to hike for some minutes and they would have been exposed to danger had they left the school premises that time.
Sagada officials have requested the local Department of Social Welfare and Development to facilitate post-trauma activities to treat the pupils.
Fr. Rex Reyes, an Anglican priest and secretary-general of the National Churches of Christ in the Philippines (NCCP) and a native of Sagada, supported the move to address the trauma left by the operations among the pupils and other traumatized residents.
“Keep the little ones in safety and may the trauma of war cease to be their nightmares in years to come,” Reyes said.
Villagers of northern Sagada hit the Cordillera police for conducting the operations without informing the villagers.
“It violated the policy that Sagada is a peace zone,” said an official of one of the villages.
A villager said that they were able to prohibit the police from setting camp in the school premises. He added that they invoked various laws which prohibit the use of schools for military camps. Still the police stayed in the open gym of Aguid on Thursday evening.
Police from Mountain Province towns of Besao, Sagada and Sabangan supported the regional police in the operation that started on August 29 and ended on August 31.
Cordillera Police Chief Supt. Benjamin Magalong claimed that they were able to over ran an NPA camp in the area in the operation. He alleged that the area has been used by the rebels as a staging area for their attacks on police personnel.
Meanwhile, residents are pushing the local Sangguniang Bayan to adopt resolutions to reiterate Sagada as a peace-zone and also urge the government and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines to resume peace talks. Northern Dispatch Reposted by
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why should I lead them there, I gave photos of the 2 persons that were confirmed at b.c.p.o. by head of c.i.d.g. I gave photos of the house and address. also gave complete set of supreme court case concerning it. I guess you think Sagada is 100 o.k. thanks.
ask camp Dangwa, r-7, intel and c.i.d.g. region what it is I did, it does have a relationship to the bombings,although not directly perhaps. If town and pnp sagada did not harbor fugatives perhaps this would help in the decision of a.f.p./p.n.p. on matter of n.p.a. anyway your paper is taking the “party line” have a nice life.
KENNETH WAYNE LITTRELL, your comment has no relationship to the military bombing of a watershed area near Aguid and the damage caused. And what gall you have to condemn an entire community of people. List for us, what positive actions have you ever accomplished for Sagada and its people? How about this: if you know that an escapee and his wife are in fact in Dag Dag, then you yourself lead national and local police to their doorstep.
IF THE COMMUNITY AND POLICE AND OTHER OFFICIALS DID NOT SUPPORT AND PROTECT PEOPLE LIKE THE ESCAPEES IN DAG DAG, COP KILLER CONVICTED AND SENTENCED BUT ESCAPED FROM BAGUIO CITY JAIL WITH HIS ESCAPEE WIFE BOTH LIVING UNDER CODDLING/PROTECTION IN SAGADA IN DAG DAG , TOGETHER WITH OTHER CRIMINALS PERHAPS THIS WOULD NOT HAPPEN. THE COMMUNITY NEEDS TO POLICE ITSELF AND NOT TURN PEACE ZONE INTO “FREE CRIMINAL PROTECTION ZONE WHERE CRIMINALS ARE TREATED LIKE THE VIRGIN MARRY. the example I am giving is from the Victoria super market robbery and killing of two c.i.d.g. officers, Mr. Bagtang of dag dag is a escapee sentenced to life by even supreme court manila but local officials do not respect the law of the land.