DAVOR IPs clamor for peace, protection after killing of Mandaya leader

“We are a peace-loving people. We don’t like violence. We don’t want the violent culture of the New People’s Army that is why we shoo them away from our peaceful communities. We hope and pray that they will respect our peace-loving culture. We count on the government to help us, and protect us from the attacks of the NPA,” says an elderly tribal leader of the Mandaya indigenous people (IP) in Davao Oriental who, along with his fellow tribal chieftains, gathered in the municipality of Caraga, to condemn the brutal killing of an anti-Communist tribal leader Copertino Banugan, his brother and nephew on December 30, 2016. “We know the rebels are out to grab our ancestral domains. We will die for it no matter what,”says Banugan, the young daughter of the slain anti-NPA tribal leader, Copertino Banugan, during her father’s burial at their rainforest sub-village of Sangab in the town of Caraga.

During a “special meeting” of the officers and members of the Provincial Tribal Council of the Mandaya Tribe of Davao Oriental held in the town of Caraga, they passed a resolution urging the national government to look at their plight. “The brutal killing of Tribal Chieftain Copertino Banugan is a clear incursion to the rights of the IPs to self-governance. The Provincial Tribal Council of the Province of Davao Oriental strongly demand that the protection of the rights of the IPs be given preferential attention during the panel discussions in the ongoing peace process between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines and the National Democratic Front,” says a Resolution signed by all tribal chieftains of the province and sent to higher-ups involved in the Peace Process.

Residents of the sleepy town of Caraga say the rebels had “militarized” their town proper when they stormed on the residence of the slain tribal leader Copertino Banugan. “Everyone was excited to greet the New Year when the rebels attacked our town. Electricity was cut off, and spikes were strewn all over the streets, and we saw many heavily armed men on the road. A volley of heavy gunshot fires horrified us no end,” says one resident of Caraga town. The town’s police chief, Senior Inspector Al Anthony Gumban, says they thought the rebels were targeting their police station, which they had fortified instead, “before we responded to a distress call by a daughter of the slain tribal leader who happens to be a member of the town’s municipal council.”

“Regarded for his strong rule over the areas covered by the certificate of ancestral domain title (CADT-01) and in insisting that his people carry with them the culture and ways of the Mandaya, Banugan personifies the characters of a datu as they were before. To the NPA, he was the enemy, the land grabber, and the dictator. To his people, he was the one who pushed them to celebrate their being Mandaya, putting up the annual festival in Sitio Sangab and the cultural village there, successfully bringing back what was almost forgotten 18 years ago…He set up the tribe’s cultural village where they still weave and make their attires and cloths and their baylans are sought out to bless whatever endeavor the community starts on. Banugan’sbrutal fate underscores what the IPs have long been trying to explain to those who are trying to talk peace with the communist rebels and the Moro rebels. The IPs cannot even raise their voices against them since the rebels are armed, they are not. When they seek government help for protection or arm themselves, they are called spies or warlords and are killed, just like Banugan and many before him.

The Internal Peace and Security Plan or Bayanihan program of the Armed Forces of the Philippines was piloted in Davao Oriental to great success, with government and the military cooperating in bringing development projects to far-flung marginalized areas especially those called GIDAs or Geographically Isolated and Disadvantaged Areas. The most pressing concern now, according to the DavOr provincial government and the military, is the immediate provision of basic services to address the decades-old problem of insurgency.  Gov. Nelson L. Dayanghirang has vowed his commitment “to continue to sow the seeds of peace, with food and income security and the requisite basic social services.  With this, there will be no reason for the people to join rebel groups and rise against the government.” (edited from an article sent by Ferdinand Zuasola)