IPs are being attacked in countryside and even in evacuation camp

I COULD not grasp the thought of a congresswoman in pursuing her own agenda of coercing IPs to go home without listening to why they evacuated in the first place. The bloody and forcible entry and dispersal of the anti-riot police, military and Alamara among the lumad evacuees last July 23, in UCCP Haran Compound evacuation center in Davao City, was a clear reflection of military abuse and harassment experienced by the IPs in their communities. Furthermore, the brutal means of Nancy Catamco, Alamara – a local paramilitary group- and the police was sugarcoated as a ‘rescue operation’.

I was there. I was witnessing the continuation of classes of about 300 lumad children when the police started to cut off and destroy the gate. Then the police started to swing their truncheons hitting the unarmed lumads who tried to fend off their attacks while trying to block the entrance. As some of the tribesmen were bloodied and bruised, the women and children screamed as they looked on horrified.