IN THE outskirts of the Land of Promise lurks evil in a form of human rights abuses perpetrated by alleged state agents and hired gunmen of private corporations against the once peaceful indigenous people’s communities. All in the name of gold and palm oil.
Through a documentary film by award-winning, indie-film maker, Kiri Lluch Dalena and the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines – Northern Mindanao sub-region (Rmp-Nmr), the unexposed culture of impunity in hinterland communities became bare to the entire population.
Dalena is also the director of Alingawngaw ng mga Punglo (Echo of Bullets) that exposed the criminal acts of the military under the infamous General Jovito Palparan, also known as ‘The Butcher.’ Palparan now is in jail, facing allegations of murder against human rights defenders.
Also, the film brings out from the closet the atrocities of the military and paramilitary troops, including the armed agents of the agro-industrial corporations in the hinterlands of Mindanao. These bones are hidden by time, curtained by impunity, but remained fresh to the hearts and minds of the victims’ families and colleagues.
Cases
The first case presented in the film is the assassination of Gilbert Paborada—a Higaonon farmer in Bagocboc, Opol, Misamis Oriental. Daisy Paborada, the wife of Gilbert, and Joseph Paborada, his brother, reiterates how the struggle of their community against the entry of palm oil plantations of A Brown Company led to Gilbert’s death.
The film also shows interviews about the harassment of the lumad community in Opol as they suffer from the goons of A Brown Company. The harassments and intimidation breed the culture of fear and terror among the people who opt to protect their ancestral domain vis-à-vis the environment over money.
The baby died. They covered it with abaca leaves and buried the baby deep in the forest.
When they went back to the community the military personnel were still there. Traumatized by the previous events, a datu’s wife suffered a mental breakdown. She hanged herself to death.
Analysis
Sr. Maria Famita Somogod, regional coordinator of Rmp-Nmr, said the film highlights political repression. The spate of human rights violations featured in the film is the reaction of the government to quell the legitimate dissent of the lumads against the entry of agro-industrial corporations in their ancestral domain.
Somogod said the dissent of the lumads and farmers are legitimate. Their demands are to protect their ancestral domain against the encroachment of foreign corporations in the hinterlands.
Instead of protection, the perpetrators come from the institution which bears the duty to protect them—the Philippine Government. The film hints us about the collusion of the government and the agro-industrial corporations against the lumad communities.
“Instead of seeds, bullets. Instead of food, bombs. Instead of peace, forcible evacuation. Instead of life, death,” Somogod said, adding this is what the ordinary lumads and farmers get for protecting the land of promise.
Thus, it is but normal for one to ask at the end of the film: How should we stop this appalling cruelty against the lumads and farmers?