Then the bombs were dropped, the bullets were sprayed from the helicopters towards the forests. What is happening? Is this happening?
Report by Dom-an Macagne
11.30am, August 30, 2013. Two military helicopters hovering over Northern Sagada [in the Cordilleras, Philippines] dropping bombs and spraying bullets into the watersheds close to the villages. At 8.00 this morning, for 30 minutes, they did the same. Villagers watched helplessly in terror. Yesterday, a clash between the New People’s Army (NPA) and combined police and military began in the afternoon. Soldiers camped in the Aguid Elementary School…
Yet, Sagada is a Peace Zone, violated many times.
Calling all peace makers and peace builders… peace… peace… peace… as I type I hear the explosions… in our Kasiyana Peace and Healing Sanctuary. The area being bombed is geared for development into an industrial wind farm and is rich with gold and copper… peace… peace… peace… Our kids wonder what is happening, they hear the explosions too…
August 31, 2013
… and so as the story goes… the aerial bombing that was carried out in Northern Sagada yesterday was an attack against an NPA camp in retaliation to recent ambushes they have conducted.
The late Manny Loste, a former People’s Military Academy instructor, [also, Chairperson of Makabayan-Cordillera Chapter and National Vice-Chairperson of Bayan Muna Partylist] explained the diversity of perspectives [on the issues affecting the Cordilleras] when he lectured on the national situation to students in the field of healing.
“From various viewpoints…” etc., he went on to ask the students, “from where do you make yours?”
Sagada is a Peace Zone. It was declared as such not because we have the beautiful caves, the waterfalls , the pine trees, the etag [or Itag is salted meat, cured and aged underground in an earthen jar] and ‘the natives’ that tourists love and from which the locals earn some income as well. Sagada villagers initiated the Peace Zone in the Eighties after children got caught in crossfire and on seeing their streets filled with war-geared armed men which was a phenomenon they could not assimilate into their peaceful life which they and their ancestors opted for.
Two decades after, soldiers once more encamped in Dap-ays and schools in some barrios of Sagada. These barrios were hosting insurgents they said. The integrity of the Peace Zone became blurred. It was at this time I brought my children home as I too opted for spaces of peace and healing.
The August 30, 2013 came… it was a beautiful day with a beautiful sunrise – I love to watch this just before 6am. I have watered the plants in our organic garden and was having breakfast when I heard the helicopters. Then the bombs were dropped, the bullets were sprayed from the helicopters towards the forests. What is happening? Is this happening? It is happening. It did happen in Sagada in the full view of the villagers in Northern Sagada; not in the center of the town. No collateral damage, reports say. And as hours and a day has passed, life moves on… in the Sagada Peace Zone…
As a widow with children and a peace advocate… I say… It should not have happened… yet it did… why…? …what…?… how?…
Today, I transplanted the lettuces and watered the plants again…
Dom-an Macagne Thanks to all who cherish peace and non-violence… we move on…
Note:
The Sagada Peace Zone, one of seven peace zones in the country and recognized by government in 1989, bans military operations in the municipality, according to a 2007 book “Zones of Peace.”
Biographical note included in:
http://www.pressenza.com/2011/03/my-activist-filipina-friends/
