EVACUEES put up a makeshift school in Tandag City, Surigao del Sur province, for “lumad” (indigenous) children who fled with their families out of fear of paramilitary troopers in their communities. NICO ALCONABA/INQUIRER MINDANAO
TANDAG CITY—“Be careful because the Wak-Wak are coming.”
This was the warning given by Army soldiers to students of Alternative Learning Center for Agriculture and Livelihood Development (Alcadev), a “lumad” (indigenous) school in Sitio Han-ayan, Barangay Diatagon, in Lianga, Surigao del Sur province, on Aug. 31.
No Wak-Wak, or the birdlike Philippine mythical creature that preys on humans, arrived the next day. Instead, members of the paramilitary group Magahat-Bagani swooped down on the community and killed three people—Emerito Samarca, Dionel Campos and Datu Aurelio Sinzo.
Samarca was the executive director of Alcadev, a privately owned secondary school which caters to lumad students.
Campos was the president of the tribal group Malahutayong Pakigbisog Alang sa Sumusunod (Mapasu), while Sinzo was in the area attending the wake of a relative, Datu Pablito Campos.
Rommel Campos, 26, a resident of Han-ayan, said the soldiers arrived in the village on the night of Aug. 30, when Alcadev was celebrating its founding day.
“I was with the Alcadev students when soldiers gave the warning,” Campos said. He quoted the warning given to them: “Be careful because the Wak-Wak are coming.”
In the afternoon of Aug. 31, the soldiers hurriedly left Han-ayan and positioned themselves on a hill some 200 meters away.
“At that time, the residents received reports that some AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) members were also on their way to Han-ayan,” Campos said. They thought that the soldiers were attending the turnover ceremony of a Pamana road project, he added.
Some students and staff members of Alcadev were at the wake of his uncle, Datu Pablito Campos, when dogs started barking at 3 a.m. of Sept. 1. An hour later, the armed men arrived. “We thought they were the same soldiers who went down to fetch some water,” Campos said.
The armed men started entering the houses, ordering residents to get out, he said. They also went to the nearby Alcadev compound. In a few minutes, all the residents were gathered outside the house where the wake was being held.
“Sir Emok (Samarca) was left at Alcadev,” Campos said. “That time, we still did not know who these men were. They were in full combat uniform with AFP patches and were heavily armed,” he said.
Then, they ordered the male residents to form a line and walk to Sitio Kilometer 16, some 200 meters away. As they were walking, Campos said he saw more armed men, at least 25.
When they reached their destination, he saw the residents there already divided into groups—mothers with young children, the males and the young women. “We waited for at least five minutes before the women from Han-ayan arrived,” he said.
One of the armed men took off his bonnet and spoke: “Finally, we meet. It is indeed a small world. You used to tease me that I’m just a fish vendor, that I’m a military intelligence, that you would maul me when you see me. Now that I have a firearm, who wants to arrest me?”
Campos identified the man as Loloy Tejero.
“We are here to destroy the community because we know that this community strongly supports the CPP-NPA (Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army). We are here to destroy the organization Mapasu. We are here to destroy Alcadev because it supports the NPA,” Campos quoted Tejero as having said.
Tejero saw Sinzo and asked him: “Can you give us the assurance that these people will stop supporting the NPA?” Sinzo replied that he could not. Tejero then ordered him to sit down.
Margarito Layno, one of the leaders of the Magahat-Bagani, arrived, this time with a bloodied knife, which villagers simply call “bayonet,” tucked on his chest.
Layno lectured Alcadev teacher Belen Itallo for “serving” the NPA. She, however, answered him that with her polio affliction, the accusation was impossible.
The speeches continued, with the armed men talking alternately.
“Then they talked among themselves. They were whispering,” Campos said. Moments later, he recalled, Tejero and Layno ordered Dionel Campos to lie on the ground.
“Uncle Onel resisted,” he said. “Then he was shot. It was followed by more shots to the sky.”
Dionel’s mother, Fidela, tried to get to her son but was pushed away by the armed men.
“The firing continued. Then they shot Tatay Bello (Sinzo),” Campos said.
Before they left, the paramilitary men told the residents not to move.
“All these happened within two hours. All these happened while the 75th IB (Infantry Battalion) soldiers were on a hill some 200 meters away,” Campos said. “The firing lasted for three to five minutes. If they (soldiers) wanted to respond, they could have reached the area in no time,” he said.
Campos was the first to stand up five minutes after the armed men were gone.
The students of Alcadev rushed to the school compound and found Samarca dead—his hands and feet tied with a rope, and his throat slit. “That’s when we decided to evacuate,” Campos said.
Campos and his family hurriedly buried their grandfather.
“We also looked for someone who could drive the multicab (vehicle) that was donated by the ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross), which we used to transport the bodies of Sir Emok, Uncle Onel and Datu Bello,” he said.
It was already 9 a.m. when residents of Han-ayan and Kilometer 16 started walking. When they reached Sitio Kilometer 9, they were met by people who were also ready to evacuate.
“At Kilometer 9, we also saw soldiers. They were taking our pictures. They were laughing at us,” Campos said. “Sama kami (We’ll join you),” he quoted some soldiers as having said in Filipino.
Campos said he later learned that the soldiers were already at Kilometer 9 as early as Aug. 31.
At 2 p.m., the people started walking and arrived at the
Diatagon center two hours later. “More residents joined us along the way. When we reached Diatagon, there were at least 1,000 evacuees,” Campos said.
The evacuees would have wanted to stay at the Diatagon Gym but could not because this was also “occupied” by soldiers. “They (soldiers) were playing basketball,” Campos said.
Nongovernment organizations provided vehicles to bring the evacuees to Tandag, arriving in the city before midnight.
The number of evacuees staying at the Surigao del Sur Sports Complex has reached more than 3,000 so far, coming from 26 communities of seven villages in five towns of Surigao del Sur.