Student, 15, latest victim of lumad killings

DAVAO CITY, Philippines – Another member of the lumad tribe was killed in Sitio Laslasakan, Barangay Palma Gil in Talaingod, Davao del Norte on Sunday.

Witnesses said Alibando Tingkas, a Grade 3 student of the Salugpongan School, was walking with two adult companions on their way home to Sitio Bayabas when he was shot. Tingkas was hit in the chest.

Quoting village residents, Rius Valle, spokesman for the Save our Schools Network in Southern Mindanao, said the gunman was a certain Joven Salangani, a member of the Alamara paramilitary group.

“We are enraged and saddened by this incident. The paramilitary group and their military cohorts will not stop  attacking and killing lumads in the name of counterinsurgency operations. Even children are not spared,” Valle said.

“The AFP and their paramilitary cronies never stopped threatening and harassing indigenous communities… Now they are desperately trying to quell the growing lumad resistance by killing innocent children,” he said.

The Army’s 10th Infantry Division denied a paramilitary group was behind the latest killing, saying communist rebels were behind atrocities against the tribal community.