THE military accused a Catholic Church-backed International Fact-Finding Mission on the killing of indigenous people, called lumad, in Mindanao of being “leftist cohorts” who are out to muddle the lumad issue with propaganda against the government.
“Our Philippine Senate has already conducted an inquiry in September on the issue which was fully supported by all stakeholders,” said Army spokesperson Col. Benjamin Hao.
“After the hearing, our lawmakers were clarified on the lumad issue that were all distorted by the leftist organizations in the public,” he added.
Hao said the Army has “valid reasons to believe that these tourists are cohorts of the leftist organizations who just simply wanted to muddle the lumad issue with propaganda against the government.”
Hao said they expected results of the IFFM’s unauthorized investigation will simply serve their leftist cohorts.
“The PA respects them as tourists, but upon the arrival of the members of the IFFM in Mindanao on Oct. 26, a general orientation and a focused group discussion about the lumad issue were conducted at the Capitol Social Hall, Tandag City, Surigao Del Sur,” Hao said.
He added the IFFM has no mandate nor the authority from the government or from any international organizations to investigate the country’s internal affairs.
These IFFM members are: Gill Boehringer from Australia, Hans Schaap from The Netherlands, Philip Calles and Henry Langston from London, and Jonas Straetmans and Dalkiran Metin from Belgium.
Hao said the army has already informed and expressed its formal complaint regarding these tourists to the different concerned government agencies, especially the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Bureau of Immigration.
Hao said the Philippine National Police has already identified the perpetrators of the lumad killings in Surigao and filed charges against them.
In fact, a joint AFP-PNP was organized to apprehend the perpetrators to face justice and shed light on the matter.
Previous propaganda by the leftist organizations alleged that the AFP has a hit list, but up to now, they can’t figure out how to make real the figment of their imagination.
“What can be proven clearly was the recent killing of a lumad mayor and his son from Agusan Del Sur. There are also other lumad killings and recruitment of lumad minors that the NPAs proudly acknowledged,” Hao added.