AFP told: ‘Respect Sagada peace zone’

By Gina Dizon 

SAGADA, Mountain Province – Residents here told government authorities the status of Sagada as a peace zone should be respected even as they urged pullout of all armed groups and ban on operations, patrols, harassments, meetings, and carrying of firearms inside this tourist town.

  

Government forces recently figured in clashes with New People’s Army guerillas and bombed a tri -boundary in one of the six northern barangays.  

Villagers told police and  other government forces who went to Barangay Aguid early morning of  August 29 that  Sagada is a peace zone and that all armed forces are not allowed inside the community.

This, after Maj. Gen. Gregorio Pio Catapang Jr of the Northern Luzon Command of the Armed Forces of the Philippines said “Sagada cannot be treated anymore as a peace zone because the New People’s Army made it a training ground and a staging area to ambush our troops”.

A recent  fact finding mission conducted by the Commission on Human Rights, Sulong  Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) and other volunteers noted  that  villagers  feared going to the fields to tend to their crops, and children traumatized in bombings conducted by  the  Philippine  Armed Forces aided by the Regional Public Safety Batallion (RPSB) of the Philippine National Police.

The tri-boundary watershed located in three adjoining barangays of Aguid, Sagada and barangays  Dalican and Mainit of Bontoc was bombed by two MG530 choppers of the Philippine Air Force on August 30.

A day earlier, members from the RPSB-PNP reinforced by police from Sagada, Sabangan, and Besao validated a reported New People’s Army camp that led to the wounding of two policemen in an encounter with the NPA August 29 here at Bandung Hill.

The peace zone of Sagada was established in the late '80s by leaders of the  town affirmed by the town’s constituents in general assemblies when armed conflicts between elements of the NPA and the AFP resulted  to the death of three children-  four year old  Hardy Bagni Jr, 15 year old Kenneth Bayang and 12 year old Ben Tumapang  Jr- leading  the people with the church, leaders and the  local government  unit to  call for the demilitarization of the town from all armed groups.

In a related interview,Sagada native and Kapisanan ng Samahang Katutubong Pilipinas (KASAPI) secretary general Giovanni Reyes said any act or initiative that stops Sagada from being a peace zone should be abolished.  

Indigenous Peoples  representative to the  Sangguniang Bayan Jaime Dugao is one  with women leader and  SB  councilor Jane Bawing who affirmed  the demilitarization of  the town from all armed groups  saying that the  peace zone in Sagada should persist to keep the peace.

Villagers in the northern zone located adjacent to Abra  where  both armed  groups-NPA and AFP urged authorities to stop bombing their areas and that these would not  happen again.