ELDERS of sitio Dandanac of Tamboan village in Besao town in Mountain Province are crying foul over the establishment of an alleged military encampment.
A community elder who asked not to be named for fear of a backlash from government soldiers said the military is now staying in several houses in their community since the encounter with New People’s Army (NPA) in July.
Last week, a fact-finding team traveled to the area composed of representatives from the Cordillera Human Rights Alliance, Center for Development Programs in the Cordillera (CDPC) and the Mountain Province Human Rights Advocates (MPHRA) to verify complaints from residents.
The elder also shared that the soldiers required villagers to secure a safe conduct pass and government-issued identification cards to be able to go to their rice and corn fields in their communal forest.
The team found government soldiers occupying houses are restricting the movement of village folk and are causing fear among village folk.
Fr. Joseph Requino, chair of the MPHRA, said the safe conduct pass is meant to secure soldiers and not the village folk. He said villagers know each other and can easily identify outsiders while soldiers could not.
Residents shared to the team of human rights defenders that since it is harvest season, their yield was reduced by half because of the military operation.
Farmers said they need to prepare the fields for the next planting season and lamented that they would have to go through the same process of presenting identification.
Some feared that planting might be delayed as the harvest was already hampered because of the military operation.
MPHRA reported there are still several farmers who have yet to harvest as of press time.
Sgt. Jose Villena said they have considered the safety of the community that is why they occupied empty houses. He said they sought permission from the home owners before they occupied their houses.
However, Carol Bagyan, owner of one of the homes occupied by the soldiers, said they did not seek her permission.
Bagyan is a human rights defender herself from the Cordillera People’s Alliance Mountain Province chapter. She asked the soldiers to leave her house.