Karapatan claims Army-backed men burned teachers’ cottage in Agusan Sur

HUMAN rights group Karapatan on Thursday accused military-backed armed men of burning the teachers’ cottage of Agricultural and Livelihood Development, Inc. (Alcadev) in Agusan del Sur.

In a statement, Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay said the cottage in Barangay Padiay in Sibagat town was torched at about 2 a.m. by a group of men believed to be under the command of the Army’s 23rd Infantry Battalion.

The Alcadev learning center caters to the lumads in the province which opened two years ago.

Last September, Alcadev’s executive director Emerito Samarca and lumad leaders Dionel Campos and Datu Juvello Sinzo were killed by armed men. Two schools were burned at that time in the villages of Han-ayan and Panukmuan in Lianga town in Surigao del Sur.

The Army has been accused in recent months of training militia groups allegedly to intimidate the indigenous people suspected to be supporters of the New People’s Army.

“This is the height of impudence. The BS Aquino regime continues to ignore the public uproar on the lumad killings and the resounding call to pull-out the military troops from the lumad communities in Mindanao and to dismantle the AFP-backed paramilitary groups. It has instead given the military carte blanche to go on a rampage against the people in remote villages,” Palabay said.

The military, meanwhile, has denied the allegations of Karapatan.

“Before they indiscriminately point their finger to the Army, we shall know first the identity of the perpetrators so that we will know their motives,” said Army’s 4th Infantry Division spokesperson Captain Joe Martinez in a text message.

He said the accusation was “just another way of destroying our image and credibility as protector of peace and development.”