Stop Lumad Killings

Published by the Visayan Daily Star Publications, Inc.

NINFA R. LEONARDIA Editor-in-Chief & President

CARLA P. GOMEZ Editor CHERYL CRUZ Busines Editor NIDA A. BUENAFE Sports Editor RENE GENOVE Bureau Chief, Dumaguete MAJA P. DELY Advertising Coordinator

CARLOS ANTONIO L. LEONARDIA Administrative Officer

The razing of a “lumad” (indigenous) community in Lianga, Surigao del Sur and the killings of educator Emerito Samarca and local leaders Dionel Campos and Juvello Sinzo that was allegedly perpetrated by the Magahat, a tribal paramilitary group conducting a witch hunt for communist leaders and sympathizers has raised serious questions regarding the military's involvement in the matter.

Lumad leaders Campos and Sinzo were shot by militiamen after the residents of the community were rounded up in a basketball court by the paramilitary group while Samarca, the executive director of Alternative Learning Center for Agricultural and Livelihood Development (Alcadev), a local high school, was found dead inside the school that was ransacked and burned by the same group. Samarca was hogtied, stabbed, and had his throat slit by his killers.

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima is considering a parallel investigation to be conducted by the National Bureau of Investigation to look into the killings and the violence and especially into reports that the Army's 36 th Infantry Battalion and the Special Forces connived with the Magahat in carrying out operations against the lumads.

While Armed Forces of the Philippines public affairs office chief Col. Noel Detoyato has denied the allegations, saying the military has no connections with the group, the officials in charge of the military and security forces in the area have a lot of work ahead of them if they are to convince the people that they are neither involved nor do they condone such behavior by paramilitary groups.

Aside from the Magahat group's overzealous campaign against the NPA that could very well prompt military officials to at the very least look the other way as they commit atrocities on communities they suspect of harboring sympathies, witness reports of soldiers having visited the community a few days before the attack occurred give credence to those allegations.

It should be considered an epic failure by the government and its security forces for an armed paramilitary group to go on a killing rampage in an area it is supposedly monitoring. A deadly situation can only happen if someone has either been sleeping on the job or has been intentionally looking the other way. The killing of those lumads is a failure of government that needs to be corrected ASAP and as such it is an issue that requires the full attention of the AFP, the Department of Justice, the Commission on Human Rights, and President Aquino himself.*