JOINT STATEMENT OF THE HOLY CROSS OF DAVAO COLLEGE FACULTY

UNION-ADLO-KMU & HOLY CROSS OF DAVAO COLLEGE EMPLOYEES

ASSOCIATION-FFW ON THE BURNING OF UCCP-HARAN COMPOUND
We, the union members of Holy Cross of Davao College Faculty Union-ADLO-KMU and Holy
Cross of Davao College Employees Association-FFW, condemn the latest atrocity committed
against the displaced Lumad in United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP)-Haran
Dormitory.
At 2am today, unidentified men burned the UCCP-Haran where hundreds of Lumad are seeking
refuge. Five people were confirmed hurt, including two children.
The Lumads at UCCP Haran fled their homes to escape the harassment and persecution of the
military and the military-backed group called Alamara. Chaloka Beyani, United Nations Special
Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons, found their situation
unacceptable and unsustainable. Leaving their ancestral lands with which their lives are
intimately connected is appalling enough. To subject them to yet another suffering such as the
burning of their temporary shelter is intolerable anymore.
There can be no doubt this was done to intimidate the Lumad and force them to return to their
ancestral home. Whoever is behind this atrocity must be held accountable, for this is definitely a
human rights violation.
Under the United Nations Guiding Principles on Internally Displaced Persons, internally
displaced persons, such as the Lumads staying in UCCP-Haran, have The right to be protected
against forcible return to or resettlement in any place where their life, safety, liberty and/or health
would be at risk.
Not long ago, North Cotabato representative Nancy Catamco, who chairs the House Committee
on Indigenous Peoples and Cultural Communities, set out on a mission to rescue the Lumads and
bring them home. She was accompanied by personnel from the Regional Police Safety Battalion,
Women's Children's Protection Desk, Davao City Police Office and San Pedro Police Precinct.
What was conceived to be a rescue mission turned, however, into an angry and violent
confrontation between Catamco and the Lumads.
Now, the Lumads are once again violently driven away, this time from what they considered their
second home after they were forced to flee their ancestral lands.
Therefore, we urge the government to take action. The internal displacement of Lumad has been
so neglected an issue that this was not even discussed during the Mindanao leg of the recently
concluded debate among the presidential candidates.
The longer this issue drags on, the worse their situation gets. For, in the words of Beyani, this
not only destroys the homes and livelihoods of indigenous peoples, but has an incalculable
impact on their cultures and ways of life that are part of the rich and diverse heritage of the
Philippines that must be protected or otherwise lost, perhaps forever.