Eight combat battalions of the Philippine Army, the Philippine
National Police and Citizens Armed Force Geographical Unit (Cafgu) are
concentrated in the first and second districts of Quezon, harassing
civilians, and wreaking havoc on the lives of the rural folk.
By RONALYN V. OLEA
Bulatlat.com
MANILA – At around 1 a.m. of May 9, while farmer Christopher Prieto
and his family were sleeping soundly, about nine soldiers came to their
house in sitio Pilsen, barangay Cambuga, Mulanay, Quezon.
Armed with high-powered rifles, the soldiers, most of them in
civilian clothes and wearing combat boots, accused Prieto of being a New
People’s Army (NPA) guerrilla. “I told them I am not. I am just a
farmer,” Prieto told Bulatlat.com in an interview.
The soldiers searched his house and the vicinity, looking for guns.
“I told them if they find even just one, they could kill me.” His wife,
carrying their four-month-old child, and their four other children
gathered around him, crying aloud. Finding no firearms, the soldiers
left.
Prieto is only one of the many farmers and civilians who had been
victims of abuses as the military has intensified its counterinsurgency
operations in 22 villages of Quezon province, south of Manila.
On the same day, Prieto left their place. “If I would not be missing,
I would get killed,” he said. He said that elements of the 74th
Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army (IBPA) have been terrorizing
the civilians in their village.
Meanwhile, Genelyn Dichoso, a resident of barangay 10, Poblacion,
Catanauan, said her 17-year-old niece was killed in a crossfire in
Lopez, Quezon on April 29. “She was there to visit another aunt when
soldiers and NPA fighters exchanged fire. She had six bullet wounds, one
in the chest, shot at close range,” Dichoso said..... MORE
Source: Bulatlat.com
URL: http://bulatlat.com/main/2012/05/14/civilians-decry-abuses-as-military-steps-up-operations-in-quezon-villages/
29. Alam n'yo kaya na ngayon ang ika-115 na pagdiriwang ng pinakaunang
labanan ng Himagsikan bago pa man ang pangkalahataang pag-aaklas? Ngayon
unang lum...
12 years ago
0 comments
Post a Comment