Probe attack on Ka Leody, House urged

Presidential candidate Leody de Guzman (Photo from his Facebook page)

MANILA, Philippines — The Bayan Muna party list on Monday asked the House of Representatives to conduct an inquiry into the April 19 assault of “lumad” (indigenous peoples) farmers and presidential bet Leody de Guzman allegedly by gun-wielding plantation security personnel in Bukidnon.

Bayan Muna lawmakers Eufemia Cullamat, Carlos Isagani Zarate and Ferdinand Gaite filed on Monday House Resolution No. 2561 urging the committee on human rights to probe last week’s incident at a plantation in Barangay Butong, Quezon town.

5 injured

De Guzman was in a campaign sortie with the Manobo-Pulangihon tribe at the plantation, supposedly an ancestral land from where the lumad community was evicted, when the shooting happened and resulted in the injury of at least five persons.

The party list lawmakers cited the 2017 killing of Manobo-Pulangihon tribesman Renato Anglao, who was among the active defenders of the lumad’s ancestral land against land-grabbers. Following Anglao’s death, the tribe was evicted from their ancestral land.

“This violence and the attacks against indigenous people have been ongoing with impunity for quite some time now without resolution and proper intervention by the government,” the lawmakers noted.

“The recent incident that involves the party of ‘Ka Leody’ de Guzman is emblematic of how our justice system continues to fail them, an act which members of Congress should not countenance,” they added.

The Bayan Muna party list representatives urged the House of Representatives, through its committee on human rights, to condemn and conduct an inquiry in aid of legislation of the incident.

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