Suffer the (Lumad) Children

In another report, the indiscriminate firing and killing incident in Sitio Nabunturan, Kalagangan, Bukidnon on February 18, 2006 directly victimized 28 Ata-Matigsalug children, and killed one school teacher. The said incident was perpetrated by the Alamara paramilitary group and two regular soldiers under 73rd Infantry Battalion. This incident caused severe trauma among the children according to the Pyschosocial First Aid Mission report that was held in response to the incident. The killing of their school teacher and the injury of another teacher disrupted the children’s educational activities.

IPHR Watch Mindanao also documented cases of massive displacement wherein a big number of children comprise the number of evacuees.

As a glaring example, IPHR said a total of 720 children were displaced when military aerial bombardments took place in Sitios Inalay, Nalubas, Saso, and Lasakan in Talaingod, Davao Del Norte on March 5 – 8, 2007. The combined military operations of the 73rd Infantry Battalion Philippine Army, CAFGU’s and Alamara-lumad paramilitary forces caused more than 1000 Ata-Manobo lumads to be displaced.

IPHR Watch will file these human rights violations cases to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms While Countering Terrorism, who is bound to visit the country by January next year.

“It is the children who suffer most from the war policy of this administration that does not distinguish between civilians and combatants, and does not spare even the children. When human rights violations are committed against children, the military and even government agencies regard it as a mere ‘collateral damage’ and justify them as natural results of “legitimate encounters,” said Lala Fanagel, the secretary-general of PASAKA Confederation of Lumad Organizations in Southern Mindanao.

“In Southern Mindanao, lumad children especially those in the interior areas are already lucky if they could eat once a day. But while millions of children suffer from hunger, landlessness, absence of education and health services, and unjust war policies, the leaders of this country squander the nation’s wealth for cash bribes and pocket in huge kick-backs from anomalous deals,” Fanagel said.

Fanagel said the Arroyo government’s “anti-lumad” policies on development is a major cause of the marginalization of the lumads.

“The so-called bright future of children and Filipinos promised by the government is a mere illusion now as the hope for the survival of the lumad people dims due to the disenfranchisement of our lands and the plunder of our natural resources. And amidst this, the problems that led Mariannet to end her own life are ever worsening and thus we ask the leaders in government, Is this the kind of future you offer our children?” Fanagel said.

(The author is an officer of the Solidarity Action Group for Indigenous Peoples, a Davao-based advocacy group for indigenous peoples rights.)