The AFP’s 303rd Brigade Continues to Threaten Survivors of the Sagay Massacre and Members of Progressive Organizations
NFSW-North Negros Statement
Reference: Aldren Aloquina, November 17, 2018
The Armed Forces of the Philippines 303rd Brigade and the 79th Infantry Battalion are not satisfied with the massacre of ordinary farmers in Sagay, farmers who were brutally killed just because they wanted a piece of land to till for food. Until now, justice is elusive and it is clear that the initial investigations only twist the events. The survivors and relatives of the victims are now the suspects in the massacre.
Even survivors of the massacre who suffered severe trauma and are now trying to rebuild their lives and livelihood are continously being surveilled and threatened. The army desperately tries to “establish their links” to the New People’s Army (NPA). For their lies to be believable, and to justify their operations as “legitimate,” the soldiers fired indiscriminately at bamboo trees in Sitio Puting Bato, Barangay Washington, Escalante City, so they can say that there was indeed an “encounter.”
It is obvious that the military desperately wants to make it appear that the Sagay survivors are connected to the NPA. Even the office of the National Federation of Sugar Workers (NFSW) in Sagay City is under surveillance, pictures are taken by suspected state intelligence agents. Aside from this, the leaders of NFSW, KARAPATAN and the Northern Negros Alliance of Human Rights Advocates (NNAHRA) and other progressive organizations who are helping in the Sagay 9 case were tailed and surveilled, they received death threats thru text messages, and suspicious persons aboard motorcycles are always posted near or infront of their homes.
Even the legal counsel of Sagay 9 survivors, Atty. Ben Ramos, NUPL Secretary General, was brutally murdered. The killers want to threaten all human rights defenders and advocates and lump them with the CPP-NPA to justify the killings.
Today fresh human rights violations transpired in Sitio Puting Bato, Barangay Washington, Escalante City where the “Bulanon family,” a family of Sagay 9 survivors chose to live with their relatives. But the military tailed the “Bulanon family” and threatened them anew. Early in the morning of November 16, the military barged into house where the “Bulanon family” was staying and forcibly took photos of their companions in the home. The personal belongings, sack of rice and provisions of the “Bulanon family” were confiscated by the military.
Not content with the threats, the military made it appear that an encounter ensued so that they could claim that the “Bulanon family” and other massacre survivors are close to the NPA. Today a picture of their sack of rice and provisions was displayed along with weapons that the military supposedly “recovered” from the fake encounter — an M16 rifle, bullets and two short arms.
The “Bulanon family” already suffered severe trauma but the military shows no mercy. Their own son was killed in the massacre. The military still calls them “fake grandparents” of the 14-year old witness even if authorieties are aware that it is only natural for the “Bulanon family” to claim the child because they were the ones who cared for him since he was small, when the minor’s biological father abandoned him and his mother. The police want the father to take custody even if the child no longer knows his father. The police and military continues to claim in public interviews that the child was “kidnapped” by lawyers and human rights workers of KARAPATAN, even after the mother and child have told the public in a press conference that they voluntarily sought the help of the group and they were NOT KIDNAPPED.
When will they let the massacre survivors have their peace? What is the military trying to do, intimidate and force the survivors to attest that the NPA was behind the massacre? Now that they refuse to follow the military’s story line, does this warrant the continuous threats against them?
All these violations they carry out with impunity to supress the peasant movement for genuine land reform. Even President Duterte has ordered the military to shoot at peasants who occupy lands for food cultivation. It is obvious that the US-Duterte regime favors the big landlords and have no concern for the lives of peasants who feed the nation.
The NFSW believes that the military also launched massive militarization in Escalante to prevent the big contingent of farmers and progressive organizations who are scheduled to attend the funeral of Atty. Ben Ramos that should have travelled from North Negros today, from November 17-18 to Kabankalan City.
This is not the first time that the military threatened the people of Sitio Puting Bato and Barangay Washington. The area was harassed by soldiers who made house-to-house searches with their guns pointed at residents. This resulted to the death of Angelina Damalerio, 64, a resident of Barangay Washington on January 17, 2017. Her blood pressure shot up because of intense fear of the army’s assault in her home and she died because of this.
Today the women and children in the area are terribly afraid, most especially some nursing mothers. They are afraid that another death like Angelina Damalerio might happen. This incident was the basis of the people’s demand to pull-out the army from Barangay Washington. The people achieved their demand to end the militarization of Barangay Washington last year.
Today the people demand the immediate pull-out of the military in Sitio Puting Bato, Barangay Washington to facilitate a mission to uncover the true events and new violations and threats against survivors of the Sagay Masssacre and other members of progressive organizations.
