Displaced Ecija folk well-fed, says Commission on Human Rights

ANGELES CITY, Philippines  – The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) in Central Luzon said its investigating team found 112 families displaced by military operations against New People’s Army rebels in Pantabangan, Nueva Ecija to be “well-fed” and in good health.

“It is not true that they are starving. On the contrary, they were well supplied with food,” lawyer Jasmine Regino, CHR regional director, told The STAR.

Regino sent a team to Pantabangan last Sunday to check on the conditions of the families who she said “voluntarily fled” as they feared for their safety after NPA rebels ambushed a contingent of the Army’s 702nd Infantry Brigade in their town last Jan. 31, killing one soldier.

Regino said Pantabangan officials led by Mayor Romeo Borja Sr. coordinated with the provincial government, the Philippine National Red Cross and the Department of Welfare and Social Development to make sure that the basic needs of the displaced families were met.

She said the families are now housed in evacuation centers in Barangays Malbag and Villa Rica.

“They are now just waiting for their local officials to give them the go-signal to go home with the assurance for their safety,” Regino said.

Maj. Charlemagne Batayola Jr., spokesman of the 7th Infantry Division, said he believes that the families no longer face any threat, adding though that it is up to the local officials to decide.