Military condemned for deaths of civilians in Maguindanao
ROMY ELUSFA, GMANews.TV
09/09/2008 | 12:01 AM DATU PIANG, Philippines – It was a disturbing, if not pitiful, sight: A young mother lay dead with her four kids in a small dimly lit nipa hut standing two feet above the water that overflowed from a nearby river. Their bodies badly damaged, they were the latest casualties of the ongoing conflict in Central Mindanao.
In military parlance, Aida Mandi, 23, and her children Bailyn, 10; Zukarudin, 7; Adtayan, 5; and Faida, 2, are called “collateral damage."
The five, along with Aida’s husband, Daya Manunggal, and son Keng were on board a banca trying to flee the site of encounter between the military and rogue Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels in this town in Maguindanao province Monday when a bomb allegedly dropped by an OV-10 fighter plane exploded near them.
Manunggal and Keng are still missing as of posting time, according to Oblate Priest Elino Isip, parish priest of the predominantly Muslim town who helped in identifying the victims.
"A lot of people are dying here. There are still two whose bodies are yet to be recovered. Times like this, we already don't know what to do," an emotional Fr. Isip said.
"Baka duon na yon ililibing," said Panalon Ugkad, a resident, referring to the missing two bodies who he believed were already dead.
At the Municipal Health Center, medical personnel were also attending to Abdullah Ibrahim, 24, who also sustained three shrapnel wounds from a bomb dropped by a plane he named "fighter plane." Residents said it was an OV-10 bomber plane.
The bombing was part of the military's pursuit operations against Ameril Umbra Kato, the leader of the MILF’s 105th Base Command that attacked civilian communities in North Cotabato early last month.
Brenda Albarico, a Bantay Ceasefire volunteer who immediately responded to help ensure the safety of evacuees, was furious at the soldiers after she saw the bodies of the civilian fatalities.
"If we earlier denounced the alleged atrocities of the MILF in Lanao del Sur, we are denouncing this killing of civilians in the strongest term. This is all the more deplorable because those who killed the civilians are supposed to be not lawless elements but are those we expect to protect the lives of the people," Albarico said in her native dialect.
The incident, she said, had all the more "strengthened" her commitment to work for peace and "help poor civilians like me who are all victims of this war that we have long demanded for government and the MILF to stop."
Albarico called on Congress, the Commission on Human Rights, and other peace and human rights organizations to conduct a “thorough and impartial investigation on this sad incident."
“Above all, we want to see justice reign in this case," she said, adding that the incident drive other residents to join the decades-old Moro rebellion in Mindanao.
The Bantay Ceasefire's condemnation was seconded by the Kawagib, a Moro human rights organization.
"We condemn in the highest term the inhumane acts and indiscriminate aerial bombing by the Armed Forces of the Philippines that killed five minors, their pregnant mother, and severely wounded another. The military should be held accountable for violating human rights and disrespecting the Muslim civilians who are fasting during this holy month of Ramadhan," said Bai Ali Indayla, the spokesperson of Kawagib.
Meanwhile, residents continue to leave their homes by the throngs.
Along the five-kilometer stretch of the highway from Butelin to the Poblacion here, hundreds of people can be seen moving to safer grounds with their belongings as Social Welfare Officer Bai Ebos and three other volunteers were trying to account the refugees.
"It is very difficult for us to monitor and account all the evacuees at this point as they are still moving," said Ebus, who at the same time was worried of where to find relief goods for the new batch of evacuees that would add to the already 13,000 refugees they had been serving since the war broke in early August.
Aside from refugees from interior villages of Datu Piang, the town is also host to hundreds of evacuees from the neighboring town of Midsayap in Cotabato Province.
At a bridge around a hundred meters from the remains of the Mandis were docking bancas loaded with evacuating civilians, mostly children, who braved the rain and the raging strong current of the river to reach safety. - GMANews.TV
In military parlance, Aida Mandi, 23, and her children Bailyn, 10; Zukarudin, 7; Adtayan, 5; and Faida, 2, are called “collateral damage."
The five, along with Aida’s husband, Daya Manunggal, and son Keng were on board a banca trying to flee the site of encounter between the military and rogue Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels in this town in Maguindanao province Monday when a bomb allegedly dropped by an OV-10 fighter plane exploded near them.
Manunggal and Keng are still missing as of posting time, according to Oblate Priest Elino Isip, parish priest of the predominantly Muslim town who helped in identifying the victims.
"A lot of people are dying here. There are still two whose bodies are yet to be recovered. Times like this, we already don't know what to do," an emotional Fr. Isip said.
"Baka duon na yon ililibing," said Panalon Ugkad, a resident, referring to the missing two bodies who he believed were already dead.
At the Municipal Health Center, medical personnel were also attending to Abdullah Ibrahim, 24, who also sustained three shrapnel wounds from a bomb dropped by a plane he named "fighter plane." Residents said it was an OV-10 bomber plane.
The bombing was part of the military's pursuit operations against Ameril Umbra Kato, the leader of the MILF’s 105th Base Command that attacked civilian communities in North Cotabato early last month.
Brenda Albarico, a Bantay Ceasefire volunteer who immediately responded to help ensure the safety of evacuees, was furious at the soldiers after she saw the bodies of the civilian fatalities.
"If we earlier denounced the alleged atrocities of the MILF in Lanao del Sur, we are denouncing this killing of civilians in the strongest term. This is all the more deplorable because those who killed the civilians are supposed to be not lawless elements but are those we expect to protect the lives of the people," Albarico said in her native dialect.
The incident, she said, had all the more "strengthened" her commitment to work for peace and "help poor civilians like me who are all victims of this war that we have long demanded for government and the MILF to stop."
Albarico called on Congress, the Commission on Human Rights, and other peace and human rights organizations to conduct a “thorough and impartial investigation on this sad incident."
“Above all, we want to see justice reign in this case," she said, adding that the incident drive other residents to join the decades-old Moro rebellion in Mindanao.
The Bantay Ceasefire's condemnation was seconded by the Kawagib, a Moro human rights organization.
"We condemn in the highest term the inhumane acts and indiscriminate aerial bombing by the Armed Forces of the Philippines that killed five minors, their pregnant mother, and severely wounded another. The military should be held accountable for violating human rights and disrespecting the Muslim civilians who are fasting during this holy month of Ramadhan," said Bai Ali Indayla, the spokesperson of Kawagib.
Meanwhile, residents continue to leave their homes by the throngs.
Along the five-kilometer stretch of the highway from Butelin to the Poblacion here, hundreds of people can be seen moving to safer grounds with their belongings as Social Welfare Officer Bai Ebos and three other volunteers were trying to account the refugees.
"It is very difficult for us to monitor and account all the evacuees at this point as they are still moving," said Ebus, who at the same time was worried of where to find relief goods for the new batch of evacuees that would add to the already 13,000 refugees they had been serving since the war broke in early August.
Aside from refugees from interior villages of Datu Piang, the town is also host to hundreds of evacuees from the neighboring town of Midsayap in Cotabato Province.
At a bridge around a hundred meters from the remains of the Mandis were docking bancas loaded with evacuating civilians, mostly children, who braved the rain and the raging strong current of the river to reach safety. - GMANews.TV
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