SCREENGRAB FROM AIZA SEGUERRA’S FACEBOOK PAGE
Singer-songwriter Aiza Seguerra on Thursday took to Instagram as she urged fellow Filipinos to raise awareness on the killings of “lumads” or indigenous peoples in Surigao del Sur.
Seguerra said the lumad killings were not getting enough attention from Filipinos, compared to the other international issues like the migration crisis in Europe involving Syrian refugees.
“Habang halos lahat sa atin [ay] nakatuon sa nangyayari sa Syria, sa sariling bakuran ay mayroong problema rin. Pilipino laban sa Pilipino,” Seguerra said.
(While most of us are focused on what’s happening in Syria, there are also problems in our own backyard—Filipinos are fighting their fellow Filipinos.)
“Paingayin natin [nang] mapagusapan, pag-usapan natin [nang] mabigyang pansin ng kinauukulan. Itigil na itong gulo. Masyado ng marami. Ang iba, walang kalaban-laban. Tama na, sobra na!” she added.
(Let’s make noise so it will be discussed; let’s discuss it so it will gain the attention of the authorities. Let’s stop the chaos. Many have become victims—some of them, defenseless. Let’s stop this, we have had enough.)
Seguerra posted a graphic of a quotation from Gary Payac, a volunteer teacher at the Alternative Learning Center for Agricultural and Livelihood Development (Alcadev), detailing the death of Manobo leaders Dionel Campos and Datu Juvillo Sinzo.
READ: Militia in lumad killings a ‘monster created by military’ | ‘Lumad’ in gold-rich Mindanao targeted
On Sept. 1, Campos and Sinzo, together with Alcadev executive director Emerito Samarca, were killed allegedly by the Magahat-Bagani group, a paramilitary force being linked to the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
But both the military and President Benigno Aquino III denied the allegations, saying that the Citizen Armed Force Geographical Unit (Cafgu) is the only paramilitary unit of the AFP.
“There is no campaign to kill anybody in this country. There is a campaign to go after the culprits of these crimes regardless of who they are,” Aquino said during the Meet Inquirer multimedia forum on Tuesday. YG/IDL
READ: Aquino on ‘lumad’ killings: There is no campaign to kill anybody | Iriberri scores critics linking soldiers to Lumad killings