RELIEF MISSION
Lulu A. Gimenez
BALBALAN,
Kalinga -- On July 9 and 10, we were able to bring food aid to the communities
of Poswoy and Gawaan in this militarized town of Balbalan, Kalinga.
Originally intended as a one-day operation, our relief delivery took two
days because we had to hurdle a major obstacle.
A
battalion commander of the Fifth Infantry Division (5th ID) of the
Philippine Army had pressured local government officials to deny us entry into
the area. But after engaging the local officials in a night and a day of
argument and persuasion, we and the local farmers’ associations were able to
proceed with relief distribution.
We
came as the Serve the People Brigade (STPB), assembled from various organizations
affiliated with the Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA) and its national
counterpart, Bayan, plus the representatives of Church and human rights
institutions. We were responding to the need of the indigenous peasant
communities of Poswoy and Gawaan for augmentation of their food supplies.
We brought them rice, cooking oil, canned meat, dried and cured fish,
salt, sugar, and multivitamins. We distributed these on June 9 to 55
households in the sitios of Angod and Mamaga in Poswoy, and on June 10 to 192
households in Gawaan.
The
communities were anticipating a shortage of food because they had suffered
significant crop losses resulting from restrictions that had been imposed by
the soldiers of the 5th ID on their farming activities during its counter-insurgency
operations. The battalion commander’s attempt to block our delivery of
relief was an added transgression of the communities’ socio-economic rights.
Balbalan
became the focus of counter-insurgency operations early this year.
The operations intensified in March, with indiscriminate aerial bombing
and artillery firing followed by the 5th ID’s deployment of three
battalions of ground troops to Gawaan and neighboring villages.
The
troops constrained Gawaan villagers from undertaking their normal farming
tasks. The farmers were unable to see to the irrigation of their rice terraces
for about two weeks, and could not visit their upland farms and coffee groves
for about two months. They were forced to let their coffee berries drop
from the trees and rot, thus losing their annual harvest of a commodity that
could have earned them valuable cash.
In
Poswoy, the 5th ID’s counter-insurgency operations intensified in early
May, a critical time for irrigating paddies and preparing upland farms for
planting. Prevented from tending their fields for two weeks, the farmers
lost at least a quarter of their wet-rice crops and will probably lose at least
half of their dry-rice harvests. Many of them also lost their primary
cash crop, bananas.
In
mid-June, the Gawaan Farmers’ Association (GFA) and the Poswoy Farmers’
Association for Development (PFAD) wrote an appeal for aid to their provincial
peasant federation, Timpuyog dagiti Mannalon ti Kalinga (TMK), which is
affiliated with the CPA through its peasant sectoral formation, Aliansa dagiti
Pesante iti Kordiliera (APIT TAKO).
Upon
receiving the appeals, TMK staff conducted meetings with GFA and PFAD leaders
to determine how many households would be needing relief and what type of goods
they should receive. The TMK staff then sent the Governor of Kalinga and
the Mayor of Balbalan formal letters of intent concerning plans for relief
delivery. The rest of us in the CPA contacted national and international
partners to generate support for the relief.
Things
proceeded with hardly a hitch until July 8, the eve of our planned relief
delivery.
The
Mayor of Balbalan suddenly told us that we would have to put our plans on hold
because of objections from the military.
On
July 9, we went ahead to Poswoy, anyway, because both the PFAD and the barangay
officials there said they were willing to face any reprimand. But TMK
staff and the GFA had yet to persuade Gawaan’s barangay officials to take a
stance like that assumed by their counterparts in Poswoy.
Before
the day ended, though, the officials gave in. And the next day, even the
Mayor of Balbalan gave us his nod. Thus, on July 10, we were able to
bring relief to Gawaan.
We were able to complete our relief mission only because the communities and
farmers’ associations in Gawaan and Poswoy exercised their collective will and
secured the cooperation of their local officials.
It
is troubling to think that the officials of Barangay Gawaan and the
Municipality of Balbalan could even consider blocking the flow of food to their
people just because of a battalion commander’s objections.
Is
Balbalan under martial rule? Whatever happened to democracy – to the
supremacy of civilian authority?
We
in the STPB express our profound gratitude to the relief donors: Asia Indigenous
Peoples Pact (AIPP), Congregatio Sanctissimi Redemptoris (CSsR)-Laoag,
Indigenous Peoples Rights International (IPRI), Lingap Gabriela, the National
Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP), Promotion of Church People’s
Response (PCPR), and the United Church of Christ in the Philippines
(UCCP)-Northern Luzon Jurisdiction.
(Lulu A. Gimenez is staff,
Aliansa dagiti Pesante iti Kordiliera (APIT TAKO) and STPB coordinator for relief to peasant communities)
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