Page 38 - Hello Philippines November 2015 'B' issue

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Magahat murder lumad school watchman in
Surigao del Sur - Mindanao paper
MANILA - A young lumad
employed as a school watchman by the
municipal government of San Miguel
town in Surigao del Sur was executed
by members of a military-backed
militia in front of villagers they had
gathered and warned of the same fate,
the Cagayan de Oro paper Gold Star
Daily reported.
The newspaper quoted Mayor
Alvaro Elizalde as saying the murder
of Orlando Rabuca, 23, married, of
Sitio Hagimitan, Barangay Bulho-on,
by the Magahat militia early Thursday
morning was captured on closed circuit
television.
The Magahat is also the militia
responsible for the September
1 murders of Emerito Samarca,
administrator of the Alternative
Learning Center for Agricultural and
Livelihood Development, and Manobo
leaders Dionel Campos and Datu Bello
Sinzo in Lianga triggering the mass
evacuation of thousands lumad from
several Surigao del Sur towns who
remain at the sports center in the
provincial capital Tandag City.
Although the killers have been
identified and charged, none of them
has been arrested and civil government
officials say the militia continues to
operate with the military, which has
claimed it has anything to do with the
paramilitary band.
Govt vows ‘higher’ security for APEC summit, PNoy meets Cabinet cluster after Paris attacks
MANILA - The Philippines on Saturday
vowed “higher security” for world leaders
at an economic summit in Manila next
week after a series of bombings and
shootings left at least 128 dead in Paris,
excluding eight militants; and injured 180
others.
US President Barack Obama is set to
join the leaders of China, Japan, Australia, and vigilant,” President Aquino said in a
Canada and 15 others at an annual Asia-
Pacific Economic Conference summit in
Manila on November 18-19.
Hours after the simultaneous
terror attacks in at six sites in Paris,
President Benigno Aquino III convened
the Cabinet security cluster meeting
Saturday morning, as the Philippines
went on heightened alert and conducted
simulation exercises ahead of hosting next
week’s 2015 Economic Leaders Meeting of
APEC.
“Yes the President convened the
security cluster in light of the recent
developments. President Aquino wanted
to ensure that all our preparations are
in place and all contingencies have been
planned for. As he said, it is better to
be over prepared then caught under
prepared,” Palace Deputy Spokesperson
Abigail Valte said over state-run radio
Saturday morning.
Valte said the meeting lasted for an
hour and a half and was held at Bahay
Pangarap.
And earlier this week, Marcos
Bocales, identified as the leader of the
Magahat, appeared at a hearing of the
House of Representatives’ committee
on indigenous people together with
military officers where he confirmed
that Samarca had been killed for
“poisoning” the minds of the Manobo,
which Representative Nancy Catamco,
the committee chair, took to mean
educating ALCDEV students with an
“ideology.”
For years, the military has openly
accused schools set up in tribal
communities by nongovernmental
organizations of advocating support
for communist rebels and, in the case
of ALCADEV, of supposedly being
a training ground for young rebel
recruits.
Elizalde said Rabuca was killed
on suspicion of being a New People’s
Army supporter and informant.
But the mayor said he worked as a
watchmen of the Bulho-on Elementary
School, earning a monthly honorarium
of P2,000 from the local government’s
school board.
“I pity the victim. The P2,000-
monthly honorarium the municipal
government was paying him as school
watchman was not even enough for
him much more to his family,” Elizalde
said.
The mayor said he, the town police
Among those in attendance were
Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa, Interior
Secretary Mel Senen Sarmiento, Defense
Secretary Voltaire Gazmin, National Security
Adviser Cesar Garcia and PNP Director
General Ricardo Marquez.
“There is no credible threat registered
at this time, but let us all be cooperative
statement, also expressing solidarity with
France after gunmen shouting “Allahu
akbar” massacred scores of diners and
concert-goers across Paris.
On ‘full alert’; mock attacks held. The
Philippine military put the 125,000-member
force on “full alert” Saturday, hours after a
similar announcement by the 150,000-strong
national police.
“The alert status was also raised...
as a matter of procedure following any
international terrorist incident such as this
morning’s terrorist attack in Paris,” military
spokesman Colonel Restituto Padilla said in
a statement.
“Philippine APEC security planners
are now seriously looking into this recent
incident to ensure our security preparations
are appropriately upgraded.”
Filipino security forces conducted a
mock terrorist attack and response at the
APEC venue Saturday, with about a hundred
special forces troops jumping out of a military
helicopter and storming the building.
Other members of the security forces
NEWS
chief and some soldiers were the first
responders to arrive where Rabuca
was shot dead by around 30 Magahat
clad in military camouflage uniforms.
Based on the CCTV footage and
witness accounts, the gunmen arrived
in Bulho-on around 4 a.m. Thursday in
two white Starex vans.
After gathering the villagers, the
gunmen warned them they would
suffer the same fate as Rabuca if they
support the rebels and then shot him
in the head at pointblank range.
Before fleeing, they left a warning
letter bearing the heading “Magahat
Regional Command.”
Elizalde said he immediately called
an emergency meeting with officers of
the Army’s 2nd Special Forces led by
Lieutenant Colonel Gaspar Panopio
who he told to disarm the militia,
“since it is suspected that the military
are the ones arming the Magahat”
who are “again creating trouble in my
town.”
Lumad from San Miguel are
among the refugees in Tandag. Even
before the Lianga killings, hundreds
of Manobo families fled their homes
after militiamen murdered brothers
Crisante and Ellie Tabogol.
Elizalde said the brazen execution
of Rabuca made him “realize Governor
Johnny Pimentel was right—the ones
who are arming these Magahat are
lay on the pavement outside the Philippine
International Convention Centre, acting out
the role of bloodied civilian casualties.
Philippine marines also deployed anti-
aircraft guns and riot police around the
summit venue as authorities conducted a full
rehearsal of the visiting leaders’ motorcades
travelling between the summit venues and
their hotels.
Military helicopters flew low overhead
while naval gunboats patrolled the waters of
nearby Manila Bay.
Heightened security. Asked about
the implications of the Paris attacks on the
APEC summit, Foreign Undersecretary Laura
del Rosario, a member of the organizing
committee, told AFP by text: “Higher
security.”
National police spokesman Chief
Superintendent Wilben Mayor said the
File photo of policemen in anti-riot gear
November 2015 / Fortnightly – No. 22 • UK & Europe Edition
creating monsters they could no longer
control.”
Pimentel has dismissed military
denials of links to the militias, insisting
it is the Army that organized and
armed the armed bands he said has
been responsible for atrocities against
his province’s lumad communities over
the past six years.
In fact, after the mass evacuation that
followed the Lianga kilings, Pimentel
earlier said, the only way he saw of
restoring peace to his province was to
“disband, disarm or kill” the militias.
However, Panopio claimed no
armed group has claimed responsibility
for Rabuca’s death, disputing accounts
of the mayor and the villagers who
witnessed the execution. He also
claimed he had not seen the letter left
by the killers.
The officer added that his unit
arrived in Surigao del Sur from Bohol
as an augmentation force only two
weeks ago.
He said their mission is to “protect
the lumad” and arrest Bobby and
Loloy Tejero, Garito Layno and 20 still
unidentified Magahat gunmen charged
with the Lianga murders.
Elizalda maintained the warning
letter exists and is with his town police
chief. He added that witnesses have
already executed affidavits on Rabuca’s
murder.
authorities “have not monitored any specific
or direct threat” to the country.
“Nonetheless, target-hardening
measures on vital installations, particularly
sea ports, airports and our rail systems
have been further elevated to maximize
deterrence against unforseen events,” he
said in a statement.
The Philippines has cancelled more than a
thousand flights, deployed 18,000 police, and
declared public holidays in Manila to ensure
a safe and efficient summit, the organizers
have said.
Major streets in the usually chaotic
capital are being closed to traffic to speed up
the shuttling of delegates, with police asking
building owners to close their windows to
prevent their use by snipers.
Hundreds of indigenous people from
Mindanao who trekked to the national capital
Rabuca’s murder happened even
as hundreds of lumad and human
rights activists are in Manila for a
month-long campaign to press the
administration to end the killings and
mass displacements that have hounded
their communities.
Amid their campaign, atrocities
have continued in Mindanao with
more lumad reported killed recently
and the teachers’ cottage of a branch
of ALCADEV in Agusan del Sur burned
down on Thursday.
The Manilakbayan participants
are camped out at the Baclaran
church in Paranaque City where they
transferred Friday night after being
ordered to disperse their Kampuhan
at Manila’s Liwasang Bonifacio, where
their original permit until November
22 was ordered shorted to November
12, reportedly on the insistance of the
national government, to make way for
the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
summit next week. n InterAksyon.com /
November 14, 2015 / 11:29 am
to call attention to atrocities committed
against them by state security forces
and militias were also dispersed from
their protest camp at Manila’s Liwasang
Bonifacio and have transferred to the
Baclaran Catholic church in Paranaque
City, in the relative vicinity of the APEC
meet.
The Philippines has a long history of
Islamic militancy in a southern region
about 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) from
Manila, although extremists have also
carried out deadly attacks in the capital.
Al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf gunmen
killed more than 100 people when they
fire-bombed a ferry on Manila Bay in
2004, while the group regularly kidnaps
foreign tourists and bombs churches and
shopping malls in the south.
Department of Foreign Affairs
spokesman Charles Jose added: “Our
security officials are monitoring and
assessing the situation and are taking
necessary precautions to ensure the safety,
security and well-being of all delegates.”
APEC has 21 member-economies, but
Russian President Vladimir Putin has told
the hosts he is skipping the meeting.
Indonesia’s foreign ministry also said
President Joko Widodo would be absent,
while the hosts said the president of
Colombia was attending as an observer.
n AFP / News5 with a report from InterAksyon.com /
November 14, 2015 / 10:38 am