By Aquiles Z. Zonio
Human rights group KARAPATAN-SOCSKSARGEN is urging Mayor Marivic Diamante of Kiblawan town, Davao Del Sur to stop acting as the mouthpiece both of Xstrata-SMI and the military.
Zadrach Sabella, Karapatan-Socsksargen spokesperson, said Diamante doesn’t know what she’s ranting about.
Sabella assailed Diamante for saying that B’laans may wage a “pangayaw” against government forces due to the death of Dagil Capion’s wife and three children.
Sabella also rebuked Diamante for labeling Dagil as a bandit not an anti-mining activist.
In a statement sent to Edge Davao, Sabella said “Dagil and his group have been waging a pangayaw for almost two years now because of their opposition to Xstrata-SMI’s operation.
Sabella said many lumads would be displaced from their ancestral lands once Xstrata-SMI starts its full-blast operations.
“They want that their lumad culture and rights over their ancestral land be respected. They take up arms when their plea fells on deaf ears,” Sabella said.
He said Diamante’s claim that Capion was a bandit smacks of insensitivity.
“She is downgrading Dagil’s resolute stand in defending his ancestral land against the onslaught of a foreign mining company which is widely opposed but enjoys the wholehearted support of the Kiblawan mayor,” he said.
KARAPATAN-Socsksargen is calling for an indepth and impartial investigation of the incident and the pullout of all military and paramilitary forces from the mining area.
