Development
Aggression.
The Ulterior Motive
A cursory look at the massive military operations in Marilog would
easily lend credence to the fact that the Armed Forces of the
Philippines (AFP) continues to resort to indiscriminate bombings and
massive ground operations to wipe out communist insurgents over whom
it has supposedly gained "strategic... The Matigsalogs of Marilog
Refugees in Their Own Ancestral Lands
(from the newsletter of the Solidarity Action Group for
Indigenous Peoples (SAGIP))
At a time when the Philippine government is grooming for the Asia
Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting this November,
ostensibly to propel the country to NIChood, the retreat of
indigenous peoples farther into the hinterlands seemed so much
an isolated and irrelevant episode in the region's supposed
climactic rise, until the mass evacuation of some 183 indigenous
Matigsalog families from four villages of Marilog District, Davao
City.
For the Matigsalogs, the recent four-day bombing and shelling in
sitios (small villages) Kapatagan, Patulang, Bangkal and Tagaibo,
is an explicit proof that development could have a totally
different intention, which could mean their exodus from their
ancestral lands. Or harassments. Or death.
The military propaganda machinery have drummed up the familiar
refrain that the operations were aimed at New People's Army (NPA)
rebels in the area. Helicopters of the 73rd Infantry Batallion,
Philippine Army reinforced ground troops purportedly to pursue
and decimate the fleeing guerillas.
But what these military reports did not tell are the stories of
how the ensuing mass evacuation of Lumads (indigenous peoples of
Mindanao, Southern Philippines) separated them from their
families, how encroachment on ancestral lands disrupted the
fragile peace in the area, how the militarization killed
Matigsalog Rosie Abing, and what her death meant to her 12
children and her ailing husband.
These are details which refuse to die down even as the military
is quick to point its accusing fingers to a nemesis --- the NPAs
--- over which, no less than President Ramos claims, the State has
gained "strategic victory".
These are details that continue to persist. And they echo similar
stories of harassments and ethnocide such as those of the Ata-
Manobos of Talaingod and the Mandayas of Cateel, Davao Oriental,
or the Umayamnon tribe of Loreto and La Paz, Agusan del Sur.
Patulang Datu Danny Umbalong can not comprehend the aerial
bombings. He queries, "Nganong nanglupad ma na (mga helikopter)
nga puthaw man unta na? Nahadlok gyud mi-Dilimikasabot niining
mga butanga. (Why are those (helicopters) capable of flying when
they are made of iron? We are very afraid. We cannot understand
these things)."