#defend talaingod

[pannaginip]

Philippine Collegian, official student publication of UP Diliman, on Twitter @phkule:

WATCH: Progressive groups staged an indignation rally earlier in front of the Commission on Human Rights following the conviction of 14 rights defenders, including ACT Teachers Rep. France Castro and former Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo, on fabricated child abuse charges.

The organizers, together with more than 70 delegates, were initially detained during a 2018 solidarity mission to deliver food and other essentials to Lumad students in Talaingod, Davao del Norte.

2024 Jul. 15

[aliencrybby]

“Mindanaw” written by Tunog Bobongan and music written and arranged by veteran Pinoy musician Onie Badiang of Yano and Asin, is a song that talks about the richness of Mindanao and the importance of preserving the land where the Lumad communities are located, because to preserve the land is to preserve not only the lives of the Lumads but our lives as well, as these lands hold the rich mineral and other natural resources that will sustain our livelihood as a people, as a country. Headed by veteran musicians such as Gary Granada, Popong Landero, the Tres Marias composed of Lolita Carbon, Bayang Barrios and Cookie Chua, Maan Chua, Pol Torrente, Brownman Revival and hip-hop artists Blkd and Gloc-9, with the special participation of kudlong players from the Manobo communities from Talaingod and Bukidnon, and the voice and speech of one of the fiercest woman chieftain Bai Bibiyaon Bigkay from the Manobo, Talaingod community; and directed by activist-film maker King Catoy, “Mindanaw” calls on us to pledge our commitment to defend Mindanao as the last frontier, against development aggression and extractive mining.

Mindanaw track available for purchase, please visit salugpongan.org/shop/mindanaw. All purchases will be donated directly to National Alliance for Filipino Concerns' (NAFCON) Adopt A Community project. To learn more about the Adopt A Community project, please visit nafconusa.org/faq-on-adopt-a-community.

[phgq]

NCIP exec dares USC priest to prove IP parents, kids’ video calls

#PHnews: NCIP exec dares USC priest to prove IP parents, kids’ video calls

CEBU CITY – The head of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) on Tuesday challenged a priest at the University of San Carlos (USC)-Talamban Campus here to show proof that they let IP children to make "video calls" with their parents in the mountain town of Talaingod, Davao del Norte.

On Monday, social workers rescued 19 IP children said to be illegally held at a retreat house of the USC since March last year.

NCIP Director, Lawyer Marlon Bosantog, said Fr. Rogelio Bag-ao, superior of the Society of Divine Word missionaries in Philippine southern province, has lied in his statement released to Cebu media which said that he had constant communications with the parents using the social media.

The statement said Bag-ao “commented on the allegation that the children were at the Bakwit School without consent,” saying that “the children have videocalls with their parents and he himself follows up with the students to ask if they miss their parents”.

Bag-ao is the manager of the retreat house where the IP children from Davao del Norte and from different towns in Sultan Kudarat were rescued while seven of their Salugpungan teachers were arrested.

Bosantog said the priest should show a Zoom record or any recording that would show the conversations between the parents, who are members of the Ata Manobo tribe in Talaingod, and their children while in the retreat house for the Lumad Bakwit School.

“Wala namang signal sa bundok (There is no signal in the mountain). At this point alam natin sinong nagsisinungaling (we know now who is lying). They are just trying to avoid responsibility,” Bosantog said in a virtual presser.

He said appropriate cases would be filed against the seven teachers including but not limited to kidnapping, serious illegal detention, and child abuse.

“If the kids were taught on how to carry firearms for warfare, that’s a violation of international humanitarian law on conscription of children as child warriors,” he said.

Bosantog said the government will look into the “complicity of the university” and possible violations to the right of the IP children to be in their ancestral domain which is penalized under the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA).

Lorua Sambeyang, one of the six parents who came to Cebu with the help of the Municipal Social Welfare Office of Talaingod, told the media during the presser that many of them do not have mobile phones and do not know how to operate gadgets.

Undersecretary Lorraine Badoy, member of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), defended the actions of the social workers and the authorities in rescuing the IP children from the USC retreat house.

“It’s very clear that there are parents who are looking for their children and somebody died looking for their children who are in Cebu. In the first place these children are here without the consent or any authorization from them,” Badoy said. “The rescue was really in place, that was really called for”.

The Manobo parents told the panelists that they were made to sign a paper when their children were taken but they did not even understand its content.

Sambeyang also said no one from the police or from any government agency forced them to go to Cebu.

She said she and her companions in the tribe are afraid of boat rides, but they mustered courage in the hope of reuniting with their children who were taken away from them three years ago.

In a statement, the USC said the Save Our Schools (SOS) assisted in the formation of Lumad Bakwit School in the university in order to help IP communities in Mindanao continue their studies amid the threat of aerial bombings and shutdown of community-built schools in their area.

“The Lumad Bakwit School, which was launched in UP Cebu on October 2019, is an effort from the Lumad community to continue their education despite the militarization of their communities, which has worsened over the decades,” Regletto Imbong, convener of the SOS Network Cebu, said.

He said the Bakwit School was launched in October 2019 and conducted activities in different schools in Cebu such as the Southwestern University PHINMA here and St. Scholastica’s Academy in Tabunok, Talisay City, Cebu. (PNA)

  ***

References:

* Philippine News Agency. "NCIP exec dares USC priest to prove IP parents, kids’ video calls." Philippine News Agency. https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1130856 (accessed February 17, 2021 at 04:02AM UTC+14).

* Philippine News Agency. "NCIP exec dares USC priest to prove IP parents, kids’ video calls." Archive Today. https://archive.ph/?run=1&url=https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1130856 (archived).

[anakbayaneastbay]

Stand with Standing Rock: Resist Imperialist Attack on Environment & Indigenous Sovereignty

For Immediate Release March 10, 2017 References: Megan Zapanta, Anakbayan East Bay, mzapanta10@gmail.com Shina Robinson, Anakbayan East Bay, shina.robinson@gmail.com

Oakland, CA - On February 7, the US Army Corps of Engineers granted an easement to allow the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline underneath the Missouri River. If built, this pipeline will endanger not only the water of millions, but also the ancestral land and way of life of the Sioux tribe who have been fighting colonialism, genocide, and dishonored treaties for over 500 years.

This January, five Anakbayan East Bay members travelled through the Philippines on a solidarity mission with the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) Northern California Chapter. An objective of our trip was connecting movements resisting state repression. Everywhere we shared stories from Standing Rock and the solidarity delegations that many of our members and allies went on to defend indigenous land from oil corporations. This was an important point of connection to make with the Talaingod Manobo people, who are indigenous to the Pantaron Mountains of the Southern Mindanao Region of the Philippines.

We spent about a week with the Talaingod Manobo people at the Salupongan International School for indigenous youth in Nasilaban. Companies involved in extractive industries, like mining and lumber, have ravaged the natural resources of Mindanao. Since the 1990s, Alcantara & Sons, a lumber company, bolstered by private security, paramilitary groups and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) have devastated the rainforests around the Talaingod Manobo communities. Since then, the Talaingod Manobos have engaged in armed conflict to defend their land. Every few years, the intensity of military attacks have forced them to evacuate to Davao, the capital city of Mindanao. They most recently evacuated in March of 2014 and are just now beginning to re-settle their villages. Some of the communities that had fled are still living in the Bakwit, an evacuation center in United Church of Christ of the Philippines Haran in Davao.

Most of our delegation returned home the week after the US president's inauguration. The same week, among a slew of other oppressive directives, the current administration issued an executive order to expedite approval of the Dakota Access Pipeline and reopen the approval process of the Keystone XL Pipeline. Both pipeline projects would not only endanger water sources that millions of people rely on, but would bulldoze sacred ancestral burial sites and devastate ancestral land of the area’s First Nations peoples. Bringing only a few temporary jobs in a polluting and dying industry, the mostly male workers living in the “man camps” commit extreme sexual violence against indigenous women and girls. It’s fitting that the resistance that has inspired thousands to physically join the sacred camps in stopping the pipeline is being led by indigenous women and youth. From creating incredibly organized camps grounded in ceremony, which drew representatives from 300 native tribes and coordinated 10,000 volunteers, organizing en masse all over the country, to fierce and innovative multimedia documentation projects, vibrant indigenous leadership is showing us the way to defend the sacred.

Like the native people who started the encampments at Standing Rock, the Talaingod Manobo people are on the frontlines of defending the natural resources of the Southern Mindanao region. They keep returning to live on land where they have been under attack—refusing to cede their ancestral home to corporate greed and plunder. They are investing in the land and its stewardship by creating Salupongan International, a network of indigenous communities organized in defense of the ancestral land. Salupongan International have started schools in communities like Nasilaban to train their youth as the next generation of leaders and caretakers of the land. Now they are on their way to building a health center so they can live and thrive despite the continuing military aggression.

The Army Corps of Engineers may have granted the easement. President Agent Orange and his appointees, directly tied to fossil fuel money, want to continue their abuse of people and planet. But we are learning from our indigenous relatives around the world how to resist and divest from the capitalist system. More importantly, we are learning to honor each other and the sacred and start creating for ourselves outside of these corrupt systems. Whether it is the Lakota Sioux in the heart of empire or the Talaingod Manobo fighting US imperialism’s global grabs for resources, Indigenous People continue to be the main front of resistance against the crises of climate and capitalism. They are caretakers of radically caring, connected, life-affirming cultures antithetical to the greed and materialism tearing societies apart and devastating the environment.

Anakbayan East Bay stands with the Indigenous Peoples of the Philippines, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, and indigenous peoples of the world in the fight for self-determination and to defend the sacred. We stand with the Native Nations Rising as they confront imperialist hate mongers and fossil fuel puppet politicians in Washington DC this week. We stand united for collective liberation.

[unspokendefitines]

Wearing his traditional clothes and hand crafted sword, Vinsio Aman-og, a Manobo farmer in Talos, tell us why their tribe want a simple life in the mountains: “As a Manobo, we don’t want trouble. We like the peace, the breeze that only the mountains can give. We leave the chaos to those below.” Vinsio is a Manobo who has been waging a pangayao (ultimate act of the tribe to seek justice) to defend the area against a big logging company whose project had begun to encroach into their ancestral land last year. (at Talaingod, Davao del Norte) https://www.instagram.com/p/BrRiltoBQrV/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=166bapq8dvmn2

[eduint]

Philippines: Illegal detention of human rights defenders

Education International has strongly condemned the illegal arrest and detention of the members of a solidarity mission with Lumad schools in the municipality of Talaingod, in Davao del Norte. http://dlvr.it/QsPkLg

[buildingbridges17]

Indigenous Communities in the Philippines say Black Resistance Matters! Talaingod Manobo students of Salupongan school and Piya & RG of KATRIBU and Sandugo in solidarity with the struggle for black lives and resistance this MLK Day! Mabuhay ang Martin Luther King Jr! Long Live International Solidarity!

KATRIBU is the largest alliance of indigenous people in the Philippines advancing the rights of indigenous peoples to ancestral lands and to self-determination.

Sandugo is an alliance of Moro and indigenous peoples in the Philippines for the right to self-determination.

Salupongan International (SI) is a solidarity network inspired by the aspirations of the Manobo Talaingod tribe who united their villages and defended their ancestral land and rainforest from being destroyed by corporate loggers decades ago in the Southern Mindanao Region of the Philippines. http://salupongan.org/home

[pannaginip]

Davao Today on Twitter @/DavaoToday:

WATCH: The Save Our Schools Network Southern Mindanao posted a video of Bai Lita Ambuat, niece of the late Talaingod chieftain Bai Bibyaon Ligkayan Bigkay. Ambuat accompanied Bigkay for the past twenty years and said they fulfilled Bibyaon’s wish to be buried right away.

The chieftain sought sanctuary in Manila until her death last November 20.

Ambuat refuted her relatives, Rurelyn Mandacawan and Benito Bigkay, who requested the exhumation of the remains of Bibyaon, saying this is against the tradition of the Manobo. She also accused both of them of trying to take advantage of this matter to take money.

Mandacawan and Bigkay appeared last February 23 in a press conference with the Mindanao Indigenous People’s Council of Elders, a group that openly red-tagged the Lumad schools that Bibyaon had helped establish and defended.

Video courtesy of Save Our Schools Network - SMR

2024 Mar. 2

Video has Tagalog subs

[phgq]

IP groups hit Cullamat for contributing to system of exploitation

#PHnews: IP groups hit Cullamat for contributing to system of exploitation

DAVAO CITY – Indigenous peoples (IP) groups lambasted Bayan Muna Rep. Eufemia Cullamat and individuals whom they said are “pretending to be human rights defenders that had contributed in a system of exploitation.”

The Mindanao Indigenous Peoples Council of Elders and Leaders (MIPCEL) and the Mindanao Indigenous Peoples Youth Organization (MIPYO) criticized Bayan Muna Rep. Eufemia Cullamat for allowing her daughter to be victimized by the communist terrorist group New People’s Army’s (NPA).

“We condemn the adults pretending to be human rights defenders that had contributed in this system of exploitation like Representative Eufemia Culiamat, whose daughter fell victim to this systematic recruitment and still believes that it is the right of the children to enter the path of violence,” Datu Lipatuan Joel Unad, MIPCEL chairperson and Albin James Binayao, MIPYO chair, said in a statement on Feb. 12.

Jevilyn Campos Cullamat alias “Ka Reb”, 22, a member of the Sandatahan Yunit Pampropaganda (SYP) of Guerrilla Front (GF) 19 was killed in an encounter in the hinterlands of Barangay San Isidro, Marihatag, Surigao del Sur in November last year.

“She is a failure as a mother and as a leader. She, for a long time, had exchanged tradition with revolution. The tribe’s elders and leaders are promoters of peace; that’s the essence of why the community chooses leaders,” they said.

In time for the International Day of Condemnation on the use of Child Warriors in Armed Conflict, the IP groups expressed concern about the exploitation of IP children which eventually led them to become child warriors of the NPA.

“We are talking here of our children, brothers, and sisters. We are talking here of Awing Apoga, Asenad Bago, Manuel Salangani and more youth from Talaingod, of Magdalena Gano of San Miguel, Surigao del Sur and of Jocelyn Danwata of Arakan, North Cotabato. We are talking here of the stories of IP pupils brought to the University of the Philippines (UP) in Manila like Michael and Lance,” the statement added.

It also added that at the young age of 10 and 12, they had been recruited to the NPA, bore arms against government forces, got wounded and scarred, saw relatives being killed by their own comrades, and witnessed the horror of wars.

“We also condemn the strongest possible the terroristic and cowardly act of the CPP-NPA-NDF, they who cannot bring their fight to their own home and territories and used our ancestral domains as their battlegrounds. Bringing the curse of death and destruction into our communities and our lives. Cursed that suffered our future, our children,” the statement said.

MIPCEL and MIPYO also sought for the help of the government and international institutions to inform the world of the communist terrorists’ exploitation of IP children in order to bring justice to their children and people.

“(This is) so they will not be victimized into a deception that will make them unconscious supporters of these terrorist organizations,” the statement read.

The CPP-NPA is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. (PNA)

***

References:

* Philippine News Agency. "IP groups hit Cullamat for contributing to system of exploitation." Philippine News Agency. https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1130606 (accessed February 15, 2021 at 01:05AM UTC+14).

* Philippine News Agency. "IP groups hit Cullamat for contributing to system of exploitation." Archive Today. https://archive.ph/?run=1&url=https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1130606 (archived).

[phgq]

Funding available for DavNor GIDAs- ELCAC spox

#PHinfo: Funding available for DavNor GIDAs- ELCAC spox

Sitio Tapayanon, a Geographically Isolated Depressed Area (GIDA) in Brgy Gupitan, Kapalong. According to National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) Spokesperson, Undersecretary Lorraine Marie Badoy funds has been allocated this year for the development of GIDAs.

DAVAO DEL NORTE, Jan. 18 (PIA) – National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) Spokesperson, Undersecretary Lorraine Marie Badoy, has announced that funds will be given to Geographically Isolated Depressed Areas (GIDA) in the province.

This announcement was made during Badoy’s visit to Sitio Kaylawan, Tibucag and Km 31 in Talaingod, Davao del Norte on January 15, 2021.

“From the NTF-ELCAC stand which is whole-of-the-nation approach of the government, this year is very exciting because we’ve got the budget for the barangay development program (BDP) which we’ll give to 822 barangays from GIDAs needing these projects,” she announced.

“Sila mismo ang nag-isip niyan na kailangan namin farm-to-market roads, eskwela, tulay, etc. (It was their idea themselves that they need farm-to-market roads, schools, bridges, etc.),” she added.

Badoy was impressed by the accomplishments of the province against insurgency, saying that providing fund support to it will benefit the people.

“Pag ang isang opisyal ay faithful sa kanyang sinumpaan to defend the Filipino people, ang nakikinabang d’yan ay ang taong bayan (If an official is faithful to their oath to defend the Filipinos, the people are the ones who will benefit),” she said.

Badoy explained that the combined efforts of the Local Government Units (LGU), Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), Philippine National Police (PNP), Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), and all the other agencies of the government is the key to ending insurgency.

“That makes a big difference …and that’s the way it should be, kasi nangyari naman ang problemang ito dahil ang gobyerno hindi nagsilbi ng maayos. Before this walang roads, absence of access. Once you have roads there hindi na sila excluded; services pwede nang pumunta doon (This problem only happened due to the government not serving properly. Before this, there were no roads, absence of access. Once you have roads there, they are no longer excluded; the services can reach them). That’s really true that ‘when the road ends, insurgency begins’,” she said. (DavNor PIO and Jan Vincent Leuterio/PIA-XI)

***

References:

* Philippine Information Agency. "Funding available for DavNor GIDAs- ELCAC spox." Philippine Information Agency. https://pia.gov.ph/news/articles/1064296 (accessed January 20, 2021 at 04:06AM UTC+08).

* Philippine Infornation Agency. "Funding available for DavNor GIDAs- ELCAC spox." Archive Today. https://archive.ph/?run=1&url=https://pia.gov.ph/news/articles/1064296 (archived).

[phgq]

Our culture didn’t teach us to be anti-gov’t: IP leader

#PHnews: Our culture didn’t teach us to be anti-gov’t: IP leader

DAVAO CITY – A tribal leader on Wednesday said the indigenous peoples (IP) culture did not teach them to revolt against the government.

Datu George Mandahay, of Sitio Kahusayan in Calinan, Davao City, appealed to his fellow IP housed at the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) Haran Mission Center to go home to their respective communities.

“Please leave that place [Haran], our culture did not teach us to be anti-government. Our culture does not teach us to beg for alms or money from anybody,” Mandahay said in the vernacular.

The ancestral domain of the IPs, he said, are intact contrary to what Haran officials said that it was utilized by the military and illegal loggers.

He added that the innocence of the IPs was robbed by the Haran officials who brainwashed and manipulated on the ideologies of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF).

“Most of those who were recruited are living in remote areas. They are those innocent, poor who are easily deceived by those who manage the Haran,” he said.

Meanwhile, Datu Joel Unad, chairperson of the Mindanao Indigenous Peoples Council of Elders (MIPCEL), said he will continue to persuade the family and relatives of the IPs inside the facility.

“I hope the Haran management will allow the families and relatives to come inside and talk to their loved ones,” he said.

He added that the attempted rescue in January led by Datu Guibang Apoga showed that the latter really cares for his people and wanted them to be liberated from the lies and deceit.

On January 25, a tension ensued at the Haran Mission Center when Apoga along with family members and relatives of those inside the center, came to pull out the IPs and persuade them to go back to their tribal villages.   

He said during the rescue operation, somebody inside the facility told the IPs not to listen to Apoga because he is an enemy and his loyalty is with the government.

“If you will try to look at the situation, it is not our culture to persuade fellow IPs not to listen to a leader like Datu Guibang. It only proves that there is a doctrine implanted in them that is beyond the bounds of our laws,” he said.

Condemnation

The Mindanao Indigenous People’s Youth Organizations (MIPYO) and MIPCEL slammed the CPP-NPA- NDF and its allied groups for the forced evacuation of the IPs from Davao del Norte, Davao Oriental, North Cotabato and Bukidnon to the UCCP Haran compound.    

In a statement on February 6, both groups condemned the continued deception and detention of their brothers and sisters in Haran; slavery and of indigenous peoples’ youths in Haran; the manipulation and exploitation of IP groups and communities for anti-state and anti-establishment ends; and indoctrination of IP youths to terrorism through hate speech and exploitation.

“We condemned CPP-NPA-NDF and allied/support groups’ for the use of schools and education and development programs for the recruitment of IP children as warriors and combatants; and fundraising from well-meaning, civic and religious organizations for criminal ends,” the statement read.

They said President Rodrigo Duterte is not deaf on their pleas and has ordered the local officials to attend to their needs.

“However, our brothers and sisters remain in Haran and not allowed to go home, their movement controlled by the CPP-NPA-NDF; deprived of basic necessities such as food and water,” the statement further read.

The CPP-NPA is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States, European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the Philippines.

They added that those who were able to leave are now hiding for fear of being executed, as they told stories of inhumane living conditions, abuse, manipulation and indoctrination inside the facility.

“We seek your help in stopping this deception and detention. We appeal to you to join our call to let our brothers and sisters go home,” it added.

Mining issue

Most of the left-leaning groups have used the mining issue, among other reasons, in defending UCCP-Haran’s keeping of hundreds of Indigenous People since 2014.

During the recent rescue operation, Pasaka Confederation of Lumad Organization in Southern Mindanao Secretary-General Jong Monzon said the IPs opted to stay in Haran to protect the Pantaron Mountain Range from mining companies supposedly operating in Talaingod, among other grounds.

The Mines and Geosciences Bureau in Davao region (MGB 11) has made it clear that there is no approved mining application in the province of Davao del Norte to date.

Lawyer Alberto Lascano, MGB 11 regional director, denied the claim of Pasaka Confederation of Lumad Organization in Southern Mindanao and Bayan that there are mining companies operating in the tribal municipality of Talaingod.

In his status report of mining applications in Davao del Norte, Lascano briefed Governor Edwin Jubahib that “there is no approved mining applications” in the towns of Talaingod and Kapalong, and elsewhere in Davao del Norte.

He said there are 17 mining companies that applied for mining exploration and mineral production in the two municipalities.

Of these applications, 12 were denied while the other five were returned for various reasons.

He denied the false information in a Facebook post of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) Southern Mindanao, which alleged that Philippine Meng Di Mining and Development Corporation has acquired a mining exploration permit in Talaingod.

The company’s application, he added, was in fact “returned to the applicant”, as it is entirely within the Tourism Development Area (TDA) and Critical Watershed (CW) No-Go Zone.

He also clarified that the application of Phil. Meng Di Mining only covers the municipality of Kapalong, and not Talaingod, contrary to Bayan claims.

Jubahib said the issue is a classic example of how the leftist organizations are deceiving the public in pursuing their agenda.

“They are good at using deception and manipulating the minds of our people in furthering their leftist agenda and in exploiting the plight of the Indigenous People for their benefit,” he added. (PNA)

  ***

References:

* Philippine News Agency. "Our culture didn’t teach us to be anti-gov’t: IP leader." Philippine News Agency. https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1093883 (accessed February 14, 2020 at 11:29PM UTC+14).

* Philippine News Agency. "Our culture didn’t teach us to be anti-gov’t: IP leader." Archive Today. https://archive.ph/?run=1&url=https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1093883 (archived).

[phgq]

Lying, 1st lesson of new communist recruits: Parlade

#PHnews: Lying, 1st lesson of new communist recruits: Parlade

MANILA – Before new communist recruits learn the many ropes of being a member, they are first taught the art of lying.

This, according to Major General Antonio Parlade, Jr., of the National Task to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF ELCAC), on Thursday after a recent meeting with a daughter of an NPA leader.

"The first thing they teach you when you join the armed revolution is to lie. That's necessary in order for revolutionaries to survive and while covering their criminal acts," Palade quoted Joan Andrea “Drei” Toledo, the estranged daughter of NPA Supremo Antonio Lim Toledo, as telling him during the launch her book "Crossing the Red Line: Unmasking Covert Communists."

Drei, who claims to be the biological daughter of the untouchable NPA Supremo, admitted to having lived through hell being raped for the first 17 years of her life by her own father, whom she describes as a New People’s Army (NPA) terrorist.

Saying she is unfortunate to have him as a biological father, Drei seeks help to put an end to the longest running communist movement in Southeast Asia.

‘I need your help to destroy his (father) Red army through something that will benefit all of us and will effectively put a stop to my father and his NPA operatives from recruiting more covert members and foot soldiers from schools, universities, rural areas, and GIDAs, the short term for Geographical Isolated and Depressed Areas,” Drei said on her Facebook post on August 29, 2019.

Parlade said that for 50 years, NPA leader Toledo has evaded his captors through his duplicity, despite the crimes he committed, including the rape of his own child since before she was 4 years old as evidenced by the PNP medico-legal examination; and the 9-month sadistic torture of his own wife from 2017 to 2018.

“The sadistic and slow killing of Joan's (Drei) mother by Toledo, in order to silence her, had a chilling effect on Joan, whose parents and several other family members and relatives are part of the communist-terrorist CPP-NPA-NDF network of covert operatives,” he said.

Toledo, he added, was also responsible for the strategic infiltration and hijacking of the administrative order of the independent world religion called Baha'i Faith in the Philippines.

“This explains the behavior of pathetic liars amongst Kamatayan (Makabayan) bloc members when confronted or put in an awkward position like the child trafficking of minors in Talaingod, Davao del Norte, and absence in public inquiries they themselves requested, or the CPP-staged attack on Bukidnon teacher last week,” said Parlade, who is also Armed Forces of the Philippines Deputy Chief of Staff for Civil-Military Operations.

Case of NPA Sparu

Parlade also condemned the shooting of public school teacher Zhydee Cabañelez and her husband Ramil, both of Valencia, Bukidnon, by armed men inside a classroom at around 8 a.m. of October 15.

“It is another classic case of NPA SPARU (Special Partisan Unit) attacking innocent civilians, in order for the people to blame the security sector,” he said, adding that ACT Teachers party-list Rep. France Castro has to do everything to convince the public that Ms. Cabañelez is an ACT member, when clearly the latter denies it.

Castro, he added, is harassing police guards securing the victim in a hospital for not giving her the opportunity to sweet talk Ms. Cabañelez into lying, by admitting she is an ACT member, and possibly point at the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) again as the culprits.

Parlade also cited the revelations of James Durimon alias Joros, a former NPA Sparu in Negros who surrendered two weeks ago, of how they would pose as AFP or police in taking down their targets in Negros Island areas to fool the people that the killings were state-sponsored, and the group’s supposed deceptive promises that forced them to join the communist movement.

“By design the other CPP (Communist Party of the Philippines) allies were quick to assemble all their fake human rights defenders and were accusing the government of state-sanctioned killings of their militant members,” he added.

 Such modus operandi, Parlade said, is so common nowadays as the CPP is losing all their funding from foreign non-government organizations they have duped through the years.

“The same modus was revealed by the late rebel priest Father Conrado Balweg. They need to destroy this administration with what else but more lies,” he added. “Time for reckoning is near for these fake regressive groups of the CPP.”

The CPP-NPA is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States, European Union, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the Philippines. (PNA)

  ***

References:

* Philippine News Agency. "Lying, 1st lesson of new communist recruits: Parlade." Philippine News Agency. https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1084240 (accessed October 26, 2019 at 12:18AM UTC+14).

* Philippine News Agency. "Lying, 1st lesson of new communist recruits: Parlade." Archive Today. https://archive.ph/?run=1&url=https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1084240 (archived).

[phgq]

Mayor Sara says No to Salugpungan;warns public against SOS Network 

#PHinfo: Mayor Sara says No to Salugpungan;warns public against SOS Network 

DAVAO CITY, Oct. 1 (PIA)- Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte has vehemently opposed the operation of Salugpungan schools in Davao City.

In a released statement, Mayor Duterte defended the  City Peace and Order Council (CPOC) resolution  to the Department of Education requesting the cancelation of permits to 11 Salugpungan schools in Davao City.

Among the basis of the resolution was the persistent problem of Salugpungan students not having academic records and individual learner’s reference number, which would not be credited to the learner’s academic records with the Department of Education (DepEd). Another basis was the presence of DepEd schools in areas where there are Salugpungan schools.

“In addition to this, Davao City has been provided with a written report containing the revelation made by a former Salugpungan student about the school teaching students how to use firearms, apart from them being indoctrinated with anti-government propaganda. This document DID NOT come from Secretary Hermogenes Esperon,” Mayor Duterte said in her statement.

She said the City Government conducted due diligence in inquiring about the activities of these Salugpungan schools before coming up with the City Peace and Order Council resolution.

  “The decision was based on facts, not on a whim or rumors as critics and anti-government forces want the public to believe” the Mayor said.

“Salugpungan clearly failed to give justice to the sacrifices and dreams of the Lumad students who spent their time with their organization, believing the school will help them better their chances in the future. Salugpungan shall never operate in Davao City again because of this failure and unforgivable injustice,” Mayor Duterte declared in her statement.

She also refuted Davao City First District Councilor Pamela Librado-Morato’s motion to the City Council to inquire into the closure of the Salugpungan Schools.

Councilor Librado-Morato in her privilege speech before the Sangguniang Panlungsod (City Council) has appealed for the reopening of the schools as its students were those displaced from Talaingod and Kapalong due to military operations.

“Meanwhile, the councilor from Davao City who called on the Sangguniang Panlungsod to inquire into the closure of the Salugpungan schools in our city should first check the facts that form the basis of the request for closure, and not rely on the disinformation fed to her by the Makabayan bloc and its CPP-NPA-NDFP allies,” the Mayor rebuffed Councilor Librado-Morato’s motion.

The Mayor chided the Non-Government Organization Save Our Schools Network for its relentless efforts in sowing disinformation about the government and the school’s closure.

She cited the SOS Network fundraiser in Manila which presented several lumad children. Mayor Duterte lambasted the move.

“But students of bakwit schools are lumad children sprung out by SOS Network from their communities and forcibly brought in to the cities, away from their homes to be used as poster boys and girls in their anti-government agenda. It is clearly another form of abuse and oppression of Lumad children by a group that feigns being its protectors and defenders,” The local chief executive said in her official statement.

She warned the public against supporting Salugpungan as it is a ploy to solicit money and empathy from the public while at the same time advancing their anti-government propaganda.

“Because the truth is, the money generated from fundraisers supposedly to benefit lumad children does not go to the intended recipients — and instead, it is used to fund anti-government activities that also allow them to continue their oppression of our Lumad communities, especially children,” Mayor Duterte said. (PIA/RG Alama)

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References:

* Philippine Information Agency. "Mayor Sara says No to Salugpungan;warns public against SOS Network ." Philippine Information Agency. https://pia.gov.ph/news/articles/1028104 (accessed October 01, 2019 at 12:16PM UTC+08).

* Philippine Infornation Agency. "Mayor Sara says No to Salugpungan;warns public against SOS Network ." Archive Today. https://archive.ph/?run=1&url=https://pia.gov.ph/news/articles/1028104 (archived).

[unspokendefitines]

Wearing his traditional clothes and hand crafted sword, Vinsio Aman-og, a Manobo farmer in Talos, tell us why their tribe want a simple life in the mountains: “As a Manobo, we don’t want trouble. We like the peace, the breeze that only the mountains can give. We leave the chaos to those below.” Vinsio is a Manobo who has been waging a pangayao (ultimate act of the tribe to seek justice) to defend the area against a big logging company whose project had begun to encroach into their ancestral land last year. (at Talaingod, Davao del Norte) https://www.instagram.com/p/BrRiefbhNNs/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=rulq4hfi641f

[anakbayaneastbay]

In December 2012, a group of Anakbayan East Bay members stayed at the UCCP Haran house in Davao City in Mindanao while on expo. Today, around 1,000 indigenous people are staying there because their were forced off of their own land.

More than a thousand Indigenous People (Lumads) are now in exodus after the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) persistently tormented their communities. Manobo men, women and children have traveled all the way from Talaingod to Davao City to seek refuge and expose the violations of their right to ancestral land and self-determination.