Karapatan not helping but using ‘lumad’

Men alleged to have killed three lumad leaders last Sept. 1 in Barangay Diatgon, Lianga, Surigao del Sur, have been identified after a thorough investigation conducted by the Philippine National Police. Based on the PNP report, four suspects have been charged with the crimes of grave coercion, multiple murder, arson, grave threats and robbery. Their cases have been filed before the Office of the Provincial Prosecutor in Lianga.

No military man is on the PNP list of suspects, thus belying the claims of the human rights group Karapatan. Karapatan had been insisting on the military’s participation in the gruesome killing of the lumad, including Emerito Samarca, the school director of Alternative Learning Center for Agricultural and Livelihood Development.

Indigenous peoples are susceptible to rebel recruitment, which is evident in the large number of activists with links to the rebel movement.  Indeed, Karapatan is exploiting the vulnerabilities of the IPs in order to keep them from appreciating the development initiatives of the government in their communities.

As a human rights group, Karapatan should be defending the rights of the IPs from the atrocities and terrorist acts of the New People’s Army. But I don’t think Karapatan is helping the lumad in this regard. The fact is, in the guise of championing lumad rights, it is exploiting them to advance its leaders’ own agenda.

To Karapatan: Please stop using the lumad!

—ANTONIO M. MANANSALA, [email protected]