Cardinal Jose Advincula of Capiz and the seven prelates of Western Visayas and Romblon, including bishops Patricio Buzon of Bacolod, Gerardo Alminaza of San Carlos and Louie Galbines of Kabankalan, who have denounced the killing of tribes people during the December 30 police operations in Panay, were warned today, January 18, against “hasty, false, and presumptuous conclusions.”
The eight prelates have issued a pastoral letter to be read in masses in all Catholic churches in Western Visayas on January 24, demanding a thorough investigation of the killings by an independent body.
Flosemer Chris Gonzales, chief of the legal cooperation cluster of the Regional Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (RTF-ELCAC), in reaction to the pastoral letter, said the bishops need to see the truth from the perspective of an unbiased mind.
“We caution the bishops from making hasty, false, and presumptuous conclusions. We would like to think that you have all been misinformed. As Catholics, we adhere to the teachings of the Church but that does not equally mean that our Bishops are not prone to errors in judgment,” he said.
He stressed that the arrested individuals were subjects of legitimately issued search warrants, and that they cannot simply conclude that atrocities were committed since that is “simply irresponsible.”
“It is also irresponsible on your part to conclude that those who died in the police operations were deliberately killed. The use of reasonable force in the police operations was prompted by the fact that those who lost their lives engaged the law enforcement officers by force of arms during the implementation of the search warrants,” he said in a statement.
He stressed that the Tumandoks have long been victims of atrocities by the New People’s Army (NPA).
He also asked the prelates why they were silent when the NPA murders soldiers, policemen, and civilians, “the truth is, your silence is deafening,” he said.
He added, “We also request for prudence and objectivity lest you will fall victims to the deceptive propaganda campaign” of the NPA.
On December 30, policemen simultaneously served 28 search warrants in the villages of Tapaz, Capiz province and Calinog, Iloilo province.
During the operations, nine died, including barangay officials, and 10 were arrested in Tapaz, while seven suspects were nabbed in Calinog, Iloilo province.
The fatalities and those who were arrested were said to be leaders and members of the IP belonging to the Panay Tumandok, but the police maintained that the operations were due to the reports that the said personalities were armed.
The families of those killed disputed the claims of the state forces that they had firearms in their residence and that they resisted arrest.
The incident also caused 300 individuals to flee their homes in Barangay Lahug, Tapaz, town due to fear.
NOT IP TRIBE
The National Commission on Indigenous Peoples stressed that the Tumandok group in Panay is not part of the indigenous communities in the region.
Agosto Maglungsod, NCIP Region 6 and 7 director, in a notice to the public dated January 13, said that Tumandok was “not one of the indigenous cultural communities validated and recognized by NCIP Regions 6 and 7.”
He added that the group has “not been issued by this office a Certificate of Registration as an Indigenous People’s Organization under NCIP Administrative Order No. 2 Series of 2012.”
“Generally, it does not represent any of the indigenous cultural communities in the region nor the Panay-Bukidnon Indigenous Cultural Communities in Tapaz, Capiz and Calinog, Iloilo,” he added.
The Panay Indigenous Culture Advocacy Group (PICAG), composed of IP professionals, academic scholars, researchers, and cultural workers, had called for peace in the region following the police operations that led to the killing and arrest of tribal leaders
They also raised concern over the incident and its impact on the IPs in central Panay.
“The residents of our research sites and the communities where we have conducted knowledge-building since the late 1980s have become concerned with their safety and well-being. The loss of a maaram (learned) culture bearer is irreplaceable,” they said in an earlier statement.
Their communities have made Panay a repository of rich traditional culture, which is unequaled in other parts of the world, the group said. Among these are sugidanon or epics of Panay, and binanog dancing and panubok or indigenous embroidery, the group added.*