A Philippine Embassy official in Washington, D.C., last week lauded leaders of different tribes for their courage in coming out to tell their stories of alleged deception and abuses committed against their communities by the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed wing, the New People’s Army (CPP-NPA).
“Your presence here is credence to the struggle that you’re fighting for. And your presence here shows the stakeholders that you are bent, you are really fighting for your cause and it’s a cause worth fighting for,” Minister Patrick A. Chuasoto, deputy chief of mission, told the eight indigenous peoples’ leaders, who were on their last leg of a speaking trip across the US, at the Philippine Embassy in Washington, D.C.
Expressing his gratitude to the IP leaders during a dialogue with embassy officials and staff on July 18, 2019, Chuasoto said the group gave them a lot of information that will be helpful in their task of convincing stakeholders about the truth because it’s about time that stakeholders in the United States hear the other side of the story.
“The information they have provided us will be very helpful when we convey the message to the stakeholders. Their narrative is very compelling,” he added. “And you know the Duterte administration is very concerned about the welfare of the indigenous people because they comprised 14 percent of the Philippine population.”
It is also important, Chuasoto added, that the IP leaders met with US stakeholders such as Congressmen Steve Chabot, Bobby Scott, TJ Cox, and members of the Philippine caucus because they heard the tribal heads’ narrative.
“There’s no better way to convey a message than that, by those who are affected themselves,” Chuasoto said.
Foreign Affairs Undersecretary for Strategic Communications Ernie Abella, meanwhile, said the IP leaders’ speaking engagements are part of telling the narrative of what really is happening in the Philippines and what the tribal leaders are doing is very vital and very helpful especially in understanding the real story behind government’s actions.
“I believe their stories should be told not just by people in the government, but also by people who have really experienced the situation on the ground,” Abella said.
A senior official of the US Department of State on July 18, 2019, earlier vowed to look into Philippine tribal leaders’ claims of abuses and attacks by the CPP-NPA—a group declared a terrorist organization by the US in 2002.
“We’re definitely supportive of your organization and your quest to secure your rights and the privileges that you deserve,” the senior official told eight indigenous people’s leaders in a brief meeting at the Philippine Embassy here.
The official, who requested anonymity, said he will take the information given by the indigenous people’s leaders and talk with concerned people in the US government.
“We’re in very close contact with the embassy here, we have a great relationship. So we’re gonna follow up on this and do the best that we can,” he said in response to the concerns of the IP leaders belonging to the Mindanao Indigenous People’s Council of Elders about the exploitation and deception of the CPP-NPA against their tribespeople.
Datu Bawan Jake Lanes of the Mandaya Manobo tribe appealed for help in exposing the legal disguise of the CPP-NPA and its network that have made them suffer during the past 50 years.
He urged to know the truth from communities directly and not from those misrepresenting tribal groups because there are pseudo organizations that are able to come up with programs that sounds to be legitimate but in fact, raise funds for the armed revolution of the CPP-NPA.
“Help us clear the issues of IP killings. The one with the motive of killing IPs is not the government but communist armed groups that want to convert our ancestral domain as their guerrilla bases and have been recruiting our children to become NPA warriors,” Lanes said.
Same page, right goals
The State Department official expressed appreciation to the IP leaders for clarifying that the attacks against indigenous people are not carried out by the government, but are actually perpetrated by NPA forces.
“The tragic stories, personal stories that you shared means to me to hear. So thank you for speaking from the heart,” he said.
He admitted, though, that he had actually met with other groups who have said the opposite of what the IP leaders said.
“And so, it’s important for us to try to follow up on these accusations and get to the truth to make sure that US-Philippine ties can remain strong and that we can stay together on the same page and fight for correct goals,” the official added.
As the discussions move forward, he said, the US government wants to help as much as possible, not to support or oppose any policy, but to support the Philippines and its people on the policies that they choose for themselves. PNA