DAVAO CITY – “Return my sons to me, dead or alive; and even if they’re dead, give back their bones to me.”
This was what grief-stricken Julia Poloyapoy told ranking military officials of the Eastern Mindanao Command even as she sought Mayor Rodrigo Duterte’s help for the return of her two sons, who had not been seen since their disappearance last year.
Poloyapoy said her three sons – Philip, 30; Phil John, 24; and Philems, 23, were abducted by elements of the 75th Infantry Battalion along a road in their village of Bagong Silang in Rosario, Agusan del del Sur last year.
Speaking at a dialogue attended by military officials and over a thousand lumad who fled their homes due to alleged militarization of their villages, Poloyapoy said PhilJohn was later found dead—with bullet riddled body—but her two other sons remained missing.
“Please help me, sir, they were the breadwinners in our family, I have nothing else now, because my husband also lost his mind after what happened to his sons,” she said, addressing Eastern Mindanao Command chief Lt. Gen. Aurelio Baladad.
Lt. Col. Harun Akaz, 75th IB commander, denied the 75th IB was holding the Poloyapoy brothers, saying it was “pure NPA propaganda” to discredit the military.
Akaz, who assumed the command only on January 27 this year, said he was aware of the series of encounters in Rosario in November last year, when an NPA and a soldier belonging to the 75th IB were killed. He said he learned that Poloyapoy was the name of the NPA killed in battle but he said he was not aware of the whereabouts of the two brothers.
“I don’t believe our soldiers can do that,” said Capt. Jasper Gakayan, civil military operations officer of the 401st Infantry Brigade. “Our soldiers don’t kidnap people and we did not fall short in reminding our troops of our adherence to the international humanitarian law,” he added, “We assist the Philippine National Police (PNP) in the investigation.”
Baladad also said during the dialog that except for a visit to the communities to render peace and development services, soldiers were not allowed to stay, sleep or occupy civilian facilities – which was why charges of militarization of villages “It’s been a long time since we’ve told soldiers they’re not allowed to encamp inside school buildings,” Baladad said.
A photo of a school in Balit, San Luis, filled with soldiers was later shown during the dialogue.
Eliza Pangilinan of the human rights group Karapatan in Caraga, said the Poloyapoy siblings were ordinary farmers in Bagong Silang, who must have earned the ire of the soldiers for refusing to take part in the military census and refusing to be part of the barangay (village) defense force.
Kerlan Fanagel, secretary general of the lumad group Pasaka, said all that the lumad wanted was to be allowed “time to breathe” and recover from the devastation of war within their communities.
He said that after the lumads went back to their communities in Talaingod after a similar dialog with Duterte last year, most of them realized they have to start again from scratch, as their farm tools, livestock and crops were destroyed.