Militant tribal groups are seeking the intervention of the Davao City government and have urged the City Council to conduct a probe on the reported violations of their rights in Sitio Kahusayan in Barangay Manuel Guianga, Tugbok District.
To press their case, the tribal groups staged rallies in front of the church led by Pastor Apollo C. Quiboloy Sunday and near City Hall last week.
Security men at the Kingdom of Jesus Christ compound of Pastor Quiboloy, according to ABS-CBN News Davao reports, pleaded to the rallyists to disperse to no avail.
The Pastor, a “spiritual adviser” of the ruling Duterte family, has yet to issue his official statement on the claims of the rallyists.
In a press conference before Holy Week, the Kahugpongan sa mga Lumad (KSL) together with PASAKA Regional Confederation of Lumad Organizations in Southern Mindanao condemned "latest threats and harassment by forces" which they alleged were identified with the Pastor. These forces were supposedly backed by military soldiers under 84th Infantry Battalion.
The tribal leaders are claiming the religious leader ordered a road construction in the area, and just a day after 3 backhoe units were brought in the area, 84th IB soldiers also begun their patrol operations.
The road is allegedly in pursuit the Pastor's supposed desire to expand his prayer mountain and tourism project in Kahusayan village and even other villages in Barangay Manuel Guianga.
“We believe that the recent deployment of 84th IB elements prove how influential Quiboloy is in using for his vested interests the armed forces to secure his territorial expansion,” said the activist tribal groups.
The tribal groups claimed their ancestral lands were affected by the road-building.
“The land where Datu Dominador Diarog’s blood was spilled is the same land now being bulldozed,” said said Diolito Diarog, a Kahusayan leader and the PASAKA Deputy Secretary General.
Datu Dominador Diarog was killed three years ago over alleged land dispute. Pastor Quiboloy has denied any hand in the murder.
In the still unresolved murder case, armed men encircled and opened fire at the house of the Diarog family, killing in the process Datu Dominador aside from wounding his wife and two children.
The City Council conducted an investigation a few years ago on the reported land dispute case being the motive behind the killing of Diarog. Subsequent City Council resolutions ordered a status quo of “fences” around affected areas until lands had been surveyed.
But still, according to the tribal groups, the fences were moved and even built stronger by Quiboloy’s men.
“Despite this recent attacks on our human rights, we will never give up our struggle in regaining and defending our ancestral lands that our ancestors and Datu Doming Diarog fought and died for, it has been 3 years now since his death but we continue to call for justice for Datu Doming Diarog and respect the rights of the lumads,” said the PASAKA Deputy Secretary General. (report from Mindanao Insider)
