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Romy B. Elusfa/Bantay Ceasefire
Wednesday, 07 March 2007 13:02
Special to MindaNews
MUDSENG, Midsayap, North Cotabato (MIndaNews/06 March) -- “Hindi namin i-tolerate ang allegation ng pagnanakaw. (We will not tolerate allegations about looting). I am very strict. The burden of proof (that Army soldiers were behind alleged looting and arson) is on the evacuees. Hindi kami magnanakaw kay (We are not robbers) we are covered under military court and the Geneva conventions,” said Col. Jeyvee Resurreccion, commander of the Army’s 7th Infrantry Battalion, in response to allegations of the evacuees during a dialogue here last Sunday (March 4).
Resurreccion stressed their presence in the area is to protect the civilians and that they “will die securing you the civilians.” He said all the complaints raised by the civilians during the dialogue among Army and local government officials, non-government organizations and the internally displaced people, were part of a “gimmickry intended to tarnish the good image of the soldiers.”
“Hindi ninyo nakikita ang pagkakamali ng lawless elements,” (You don’t see the fault of the lawless elements) he said, adding they would not withdraw from the area despite the demand of civilians, until the “seven to eight lawless elements brandishing firearms” leave.
Who is to blame?
Babu Mai Mona Guabalay, 60, wept as she stared at the ashes of what was once her house. “I really do not know who burned my house because nobody among us has seen the burning. But it happened at a time when no one else was here but the soldiers,” she said Sunday.
In Maguindanaon language, she added, “Please, get me out of here. I’m afraid of the soldiers.”
Earlier, the soldiers held the group, claiming they do not allow people in the area of the burned houses because “baka matinik kayo.” Initially Babu’s group thought it was a warning about booby traps or landmines.
The group was allowed to proceed only after it agreed that soldiers first go ahead of them.
Some two meters away from Babu’s, the remnants of what used to be Subiya Kumayog’s house also greeted her.
Kumayog, an elderly woman, was living with her three children in the house that had been reduced to rubble.
Babu’s five children and four grandchildren are with Subiya’s family at the evacuation center some eight kilometers away.
Unlike Babu and Kumayog, Mama Sagan, 40, knew that his house, located some 200 meters from Babu’s and Subiya’s, was burned on February 16.
Aside from the 850 families here, there are 788 other families seeking refuge in the nearby town of Datu Piang in Maguindanao province some 30 kilometers away. Among the barangays affected are Duaminangan, Payugantong, Damatulan, Lower Kadigasan, Lumupog, Sambulawan, Alunganan, Masigay and Buayan, Nes, Mudseng
Resurreccion said there are four Army battalions in the area - his command, the 7th IB, 38th IB, 40th IB and 48th IB. Resurreccion’s 7th IB and the 40th IB under the command of Col. Diosdado Carreon, have been here since late in January. The 38th and 48th IBs, said the civilians, were deployed in the area only last week.
Villagers said they were told by soldiers that the recent troop augmentation by the Army was part of their plan to secure the “Balikatan” RP-US joint military exercise.
Last March 9, residents of Datu Piang town in Maguindanao province, which is around 30 kilometers from here, saw “around 40 U.S. soldiers” participating in a medical and dental mission in the municipality.
Musib Uy Tan, executive assistant of Datu Piang Mayor Sameer Uy, said there were indeed residents of the municipality who asked about the US military presence.
But Tan reportedly told them: “As far as we are concerned, they (US troops) are here for the medical and dental mission. Anyone of you may avail of their services. If there was anything else beyond what I know, that is beyond my authority to question,” he said. (Romy B. Elusfa/Bantay Ceasefire)
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