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Military
Operations Displace Banwaon Village
By
LEGAL RIGHTS AND NATURAL RESOURCES CENTER
Bulatlat.com
San
Luis, Agusan del Sur - Even while Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was promising
land and homes to the poor in her first State of the Nation Address,
operations of the Philippine Army forced an entire Banwaon tribal community
out of their ancestral lands and homes.
Elements of the 402nd Brigade, with headquarters in the compound of the Providential
Tree Farms, Inc. (PTFI) tree-plantation company in Talacogon, Agusan del
Sur, threatened the Banwaon village of Kimambukagyang, a sitio of Brgy.
Mahagsay, San Luis, after two officers were reportedly killed in an
ambush nearby earlier this month. Fearing reprisals, the defenseless villagers
fled the night of 21 July, bringing what they could of their belongings,
and spending the night in the forest. Most families went to Sitio
Tabon-Tabon, in Brgy. Mahagsay, San Luis.
Soldiers
of the same unit arrived In Tabon-Tabon in the early afternoon of 22 July.
They wore masking tape over their nametags, and made it a point not to
tell people their names or their unit. They posted guards at all the
houses in Tabon-Tabon, and searched them without warrants for a certain
'Kumander Bawang.' They then met Jun Flores, the RGS mission-school teacher
at Kimambukagyang, who had joined the evacuees in Tabon-Tabon.
A
Teacher's Ordeal
Without informing him of any particular charges, Flores was tightly bound by
soldiers using rope taken from the school flagpole of Tabon-Tabon. He was
then subjected to non-stop interrogation by officers and soldiers at the
house where he was staying. They accused him of being an NPA commander,
that he was responsible for the killing of their officers, and for holding
seminars in tribal villages. Flores denied being an NPA.
At one point, soldiers threatened to pull off his fingernails with pliers,
and to peel away the soles of his feet with a knife, asking if he had
heard of priests who were tortured that way before. Flores said that
they could do what they wanted, since he was helpless, but he was not
guilty of anything.
During this time, he witnessed soldiers taking clothes, shoes, books, rice
and other foodstuffs from the house where he was held.
After continuous interrogation throughout the day and the night, the soldiers
made him sing for them. Feeling helpless, Floreswas forced to sing for
the soldiers, doing his best to accommodate their requests, all the while
praying for strength and guidance.
The
soldiers tired of the game and prepared to sleep. Flores tried to sleep,
but he was too tightly bound. The guard posted beside him ignored his
complaints.
His troubles did not end the next day, when from dawn to mid-afternoon, soldiers
took turns interrogating him about his alleged role in the NPA. At around
3 p.m., he and another detainee from Tabon-Tabon were brought by helicopter
to the soldiers' headquarters in the PTFI compound in Brgy. Zillovia,
Talacogon. There he went through further interrogation by a succession of
officers who accused him of being an NPA, and advising him to stop
working as a teacher in the RGS mission-school providing education to tribal
communities in San Luis.
His ordeal ended when a delegation of local government officials and NGO workers
from San Luis came to the PTFI compound late that night to seek his release.
Having found no evidence against Flores, the military released him and
the other detainee from Tabon-Tabon.
Terror in the Highlands
Elsewhere in San Luis, other
people also suffered at the hands of government troops. On the
morning of 21 July, at Km. 30 of the Maasam river logging road, soldiers
came upon Lolong and Eddie Badbaran, both Banwaons, watching over
their stock of rice for their rattan-cutting trip. They were immediately
accused of supplying rice to the NPA, tied up, and beaten and threatened
while being interrogated.
At
that time, Linda Loyola, another Banwaon, was riding towards Km. 30 on a
motorcycle driven by Dino Rueda. The soldiers stopped the motorcycle, and
detained both of them. They tied up Rueda and the frail, 60-year old, 4
ft.-10 in.-tall Loyola with nylon cord. They witnessed the interrogation
and beating of the two Badbarans.
Mimi Badbaran, who was with the Badbarans' rattan-cutting group, was then returning
to Km. 30 along a forest trail. The soldiers accosted her, pointing their
guns at her, causing her to shout that she was a civilian.
She
saw the armed, hostile soldiers, the three men and one woman tied up, and
decided to escape. She jumped off the top of the cliff along which her
trail passed. The soldiers shot at her, but missed.
Eddie Badbaran was taken away by the soldiers. Unknown to the others, he was
forced to act as a guide for the soldiers as they continued their operations.
After threatening to throw Lolong Badbaran off the cliff, he was tied to a post
of a hut at Km. 30. He spent the night there, exposed to the rain.
Loyola was also tied to a post, but was moved into one of the huts when it
began to rain. Mimi Badbaran spent the night hiding in the forest,
trekking to Sitio Minlinaw, Brgy. Balit, the next day for assistance.
The next morning, Lolong Badbaran, Loyola and Rueda were taken by helicopter
to the military camp at Bancasi, Butuan City. There they were subjected
to more interrogation. They were released in the early afternoon of
23 July, to a delegation of Banwaon tribal elders, NGO workers and LGU
representatives who were looking for them. Eddie Badbaran was released a
day later.
Story and History
These and other similar
incidents form the latest chapter in the history of
the Banwaon people. Since the 1980s, their experience of government has
consisted mainly of neglect, the loss of their lands to logging and tree-plantation
companies, and military operations. This is the second large-scale
military operation in San Luis this year, the last one having been
conducted by more than 400 troops in April, with indiscriminate artillery
shelling sowing terror among Banwaon villages.
Realizing the threats to their land, environment and culture, tribal leaders
established Tagdumahan, a council of Banwaon leaders, to help assert their
rights and interests. Tagdumahan opposed government and other programs
threatening the rights of the Banwaon and other tribes in Agusan del Sur.
Last year, they rallied at the San Luis Municipal Hall in protest against government
plans to issue new Industrial Forest Management Agreement (IFMA) contracts
to corporations controlled by foreigners. If approved, these IFMA tree-plantations
would effectively give control over many thousands of hectares of tribal
lands to these corporations.
Last May, acting DENR Sec. Heherson Alvarez signed away tribal lands by approving
the pending IFMA applications of Golden Bell Hills, Inc., Tecland, Inc.,
Shanalynne, Inc., Caraga Forest, Inc., and Transland, Inc. These five
multinational companies join PTFI and 12 other IFMA plantations in Agusan
del Sur province.
Otto Precioso, Chairman of the Tagdumahan, believes that the latest military
operations are linked to the entry of these new IFMA companies. "The
government knows that the Banwaon people will strongly oppose the loss of more
tribal lands," he said in bisaya, "that is why they are now terrorizing
the communities." He expects that military operations will intensify as
the IFMA plantations begin operations.
An NGO advocate working with the Banwaons criticized the government's approval
of the new IFMAs, citing the lack of genuine consultation as
provided by the Local Government Code, and the lack of informed consent of
the true tribal landowners. Neither has an Environmental Clearance Certificate
been issued, though roads are already being bulldozed through thick forest
areas for the tree-plantation companies.
Truth and Consequence
The Banwaon people are ready for the grim consequences of speaking the truth:
That the highlands are their ancestral lands, and that the government has
no right to give it away to multinational companies. They have suffered
before at the hands of the government, and since it shows no sign of
changing its approach to development, they expect to suffer even more.
It is not right that they draw hope only from the fact that they are still
struggling against the many injustices confronting them, and that their most
concrete legacy to their children is one of dissent, righteous though it
may be.
The seeming harshness of the Banwaons'
future as a people is a condemnation of the government and its
policies. The President's promises of lands and homes, schools and food
echo hollowly in the highlands of San Luis, where people are driven from
their ancestral lands, the dignity of their teachers and elders
abused, and simple people trying to earn a simple living are treated with
casual brutality by government troops. Bulatlat.com
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