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Friday, March 18, 2005
Rights group slams military's post-rebel attack presence
By Jimmy P. Abayon
THE human rights group Karapatan hit the presence of the military allegedly surrounding three barangays following a Revolutionary Proletariat Army-Alex Boncayao Brigade (RPA-ABB) attack on March 9 on a secluded New People's Army (NPA) camp in Sitio Cang-angin, Barangay Tayak, in the hinterlands of Siaton.
Rene Rombo of Karapatan hurled the verbal attack following a two-day fact-finding mission in Sitio Kabangkalan and Sitio Cang-angin in Tayak not in Barangay Mantiquil as earlier reported a day after the RPA-ABB raid that left two NPA rebels and one RPA-ABB member killed.
Rombo said that attack forced at least 11 families to flee their homes and find shelter in the house of relatives outside the area.
He said that the fact-finding mission of March 10-11 found human rights violations conducted by the RPA-ABB among which was using an 87-year old civilian as a shield during the attack on the NPA camp.
The human rights leader said that after the RPA-ABB attack, the 61st Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army of Lieutenant Colonel Leonardo Guerrero under Colonel Leo Fojas have encircled barangays Kasalaan, Mantiquil, and Apoloy to prevent the NPA survivors from escaping a dragnet.
But in the process, he said, the villagers have become apprehensive and have started fearing harassments from the soldiers.
Rombo believed the 'systematic attacks' against the NPA were aimed at wiping out resistance against those opposed to the Tamlang Valley Development project.
The three barangays that form part of Tamlang valley were among the sites of massive NPA infiltration in the past.
He warned that once the opposition to the project is removed, big businesses would come in to exploit the area's rich mining and areas relegating the villagers to cheap labor.
Rombo said his group is considering another fact-finding mission into the area in the next few days to ensure that the villagers had not been subjected to human rights abuses.
(March 17, 2005 issue)
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