The provincial government of Agusan del Sur and the municipality of Loreto town of the same province wrote a scathing letter accusing human rights group Karapatan of duplicity. The issue stemmed from the evacuees who were holed up for weeks at the Bankerohan gym last month when they were displaced from their villages by the skirmishes between government troops and communist rebels.The letter rued the “black propaganda” by Karapatan at the expense of the province and the local government of Loreto when the group claimed that the more than 400 evacuees fled because of militarization and hamletting of their villages.

Agusan del Sur Governor Adolph Edward G. Plaza, who signed the letter, claimed that Karapatan “wittingly or unwittingly” twisted the facts when it mounted a media blitz surrounding the four-day stand-off when residents of Loreto sought the help of the provincial capitol against the backdrop of hostility and violence in the remote villages.

The accusations were serious:

 Karapatan and other progressive organizations persuaded the evacuees from leaving the temporary shelter at the Covered Court of D.O. Plaza Sports Complex;

 Karapatan told the evacuees to hold vital information about their true health condition to authorities;

 The group “instigated” residents to not return home unless there’s a military pullout;

 Refusing entry to the crisis committee to negotiate with the leaders of the evacuees;

 Backtracking on the agreement to escort the evacuees home after the provincial government promised farm aids and livelihood;

And finally, after agreeing to bring them back to their villages, Karapatan and other progressive groups brought the displaced residents—jammed on three Elf trucks—along with another van for the lactating mothers and infants to Davao City instead of back home to Loreto.

The whole story is rich in irony: a group advocating human rights is putting the health and safety of innocent civilians at risk in for media mileage. While we do appreciate that activism is essential to point out government and military excesses, Karapatan does have a lot of explaining to do over its role in the whole fiasco.


Source: Mindanao Times