THE fire that hit the Haran Mission House of the United Churches of Christ in the Philippines in Davao City last Wednesday may have been set by local tribesmen themselves to gain more sympathy and donations, the military claimed on Saturday.
“Perhaps they orchestrated it just to gain more attention and sympathy so their donors would give more because Haran was burned,” Col. Cristobal Zaragoza, commander of the military’s Task Force Davao, told Mindanao-based journalists.
“Those inside Haran are like prisoners. The relatives of some want to take them back but they will not be released from Haran,” Zaragoza added.
On Tuesday, unidentified men torched a building in the compound which was being used by indigenous people who sought refuge in the church compound. The fire injured five people, including two children.
Witnesses said men in motorcycles set fire to the camp and dormitories inside the Haran Compound while the Bureau of Fire Protection in Davao City said arson was the cause of fires that broke out on opposite ends of the Haran Mission House.
The Army’s 4th Infantry “Diamond” Division based in Cagayan de Oro also issued a statement Friday calling the Haran arson a “ploy of the Left” and repeated the claim that the lumad are “manipulated” by so-called rebel “front” groups.
“[The fire incident] is orchestrated by [Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front] front and allied organizations,” the statement read.
The 4th ID cited as proof the continued call by “lumad evacuees exploited by the Left” for the military to pull out of their ancestral communities.
Security forces also claimed that the Haran arson bore “an uncanny similarity” to the torching of the Sibagat, Agusan del Sur campus of the award-winning Alternative Learning Center for Agricultural and Livelihood Development in November last year, as well as the attempted burning of another tribal school run by the Mindanao Interfaith Services Foundation Inc. in Barangay White Kulaman in Kitaotao, Bukidnon.
But the local UCCP clergy denounced the incident and said the incident is an act of “direct attacks” against the church.
Bishop Modesto Villasanta said Thursday that the UCCP bishops were deeply concerned with the fire “that occurred in our sanctuary.”
UCCP Haran serves as an evacuation center for some 700 refugees who fled from the militarization of their communities in Davao del Norte and Bukidnon since last year.
Villasanta said the lumad people, threatened with corporate mining or logging, have long considered the Haran compound their sanctuary as the UCCP continued to accommodate them “since it is part of our ministry to help those who are homeless and helpless.”
“They have considered this place their second home,” Villasanta added.
Meanwhile, the regional alliance of lumad group Pasaka scored the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples as anti-tribe, following the recent arson incident.
Kerlan Fanagel, secretary general of the tribal alliance, Pasaka, said the NCIP “is of no use to the welfare of those in the evacuation center.”
“The NCIP was useless in uplifting the situation of the lumad and in giving them services,” Fanagel said.
Jong Monzon, Pasaka spokesperson, added that when they sought for the NCIP’s help in their human rights violation case, “the agency passed its obligation to the people in the evacuation center to search for evidences regarding the case.”