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AFP terrorizes Ilocos Sur, violates Sagada Peace Zone

By Cordillera Human Rights Alliance

June 24, 2005

Various human rights violations were committed by elements of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) under the 50th IBPA and the 53rd Recon Coy in several barangays of Cervantes, Ilocos Sur following the recent encounter between the AFP and the New Peoples Army (NPA) along the Besang Pass, Ilocos Sur.

Reports reaching the Cordillera Human Rights Alliance (CHRA) state that on June 18, 2005, government troops chanced upon Diego Mocyat, Jomar Mocyat and a certain Balkang in the nipa hut of Diego in Anggakbong, Cervantes, Ilocos Sur. The three civilians were individually subjected to interrogation and grave threats against their persons and lives.

Six other nearby nipa huts were thereafter forcibly entered by the government troops who unlawfully searched the huts. Rice grains in sacks were strewn all over. The AFP literally overturned almost everything in these huts, throwing some of the stuff outside, destroying the roofs and leaving them in total mess. It was later found out by the owners that several objects are missing in their houses including telescopes used in their pasture activities, speakers, sugar, coffee, newly bought nylon ropes, pots and packs.

AFP troops also forbade the civilians from going to their farms and attending to their agricultural produce as they continue to commit other violations of human rights against civilians in the area ranging from grave threats, unlawful searches and seizures and arbitrary detention. Civilians are now reportedly living in fear of the terroristic ways of the AFP.

Two civilians, Lito Cuangngey and a certain Ben, were threatened and forced by government troops to act as guides in their military operations. These military operations have even extended to Mt. Province, in the municipality of Besao and towards Abra. AFP troops have considerably increased in number especially in the tri-boundary of Mt. Province, Ilocos Sur and Abra. The local government units of the said municipalities were even told by the AFP to prohibit their constituents from going towards the direction of the military operations, now resulting in the denial of access to their source of livelihood.

In another development, government troops coming from Besao, Mt. Province, have extended to the western and northern parts of Sagada, Mt. Province, in violation of the declaration of the municipality as a peace zone. Also, the AFP has deployed troops along the perimeters of Lepanto Mankayan Benguet, where hundreds of mine workers are now on strike due to a bargaining deadlock with the Lepanto Consolidated Mining Company.

In view of these developments, along with the greater opening up of the country’s mining industry to foreign investors, the Cordillera Human Rights Alliance views the increasing deployment of troops in the provinces of Benguet, Abra and Mountain Province as a government strategy to ensure the entry of large mining companies amidst the increasing resistance of the people. #

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