Dispatches: Killings of Philippine Tribal Members Spark Public Furor
Dispatches: Killings of Philippine Tribal Members Spark Public Furor
Lumad children evacuees on the grandstand of the Provincial Sports Complex in Tandag City
(Photo by Kilab Multimedia)
By Carlos H. Conde
It’s been a bloodbath for the Lumad, the collective name for the indigenous peoples of the southern Philippines island of Mindanao. On August 18, Philippine government soldiers allegedly killed five members of a Lumad family – including children ages 13 and 17 – in Bukidnon province. On September 1, suspected members of a government-backed paramilitary group killed the director of a tribal school in Surigao del Sur province, along with two others. Since May, hundreds of Lumads have taken refuge in an evacuation camp in Davao City after government forces overran their communities as part of an ongoing offensive against the communist New People’s Army insurgency.
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