Despite military’s attempt to stop us, our relief delivery effort succeeds

 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)