BUTUAN CITY – A tribal chief led his community of indigenous peoples (IPs) in condemning the ambush-slay of their IP Mandatory Representative to the municipal council Hawudon Jumar S. Bucales on Sunday by armed men believed to be New People’s Army (NPA) terrorists in Sitio Mamprasanon, Barangay Banahaw, Lianga, Surigao del Sur.
Lianga tribal chieftain Datu Constancio Duhac and the whole IP community decried the killing of Bucales, who had been a staunch critic of the Communist insurgents and their alleged exploitation of the Lianga people.
“We mourn for the death of our IPMR, Hawudon Jumar S. Bucales, and we condemned these NPA terrorists. His death will not stop us from fighting for the rights of IPs. His death will not discourage us in fighting the NPAs, rather this will inspire and ignite us more to protect our tribe from them,” Duhac said in a statement.
San Miguel town IPMR Rico Maca challenged leaders of military groups “to take action and condemn the NPA terrorists because what happened was unacceptable”.
“If they cannot do that, this will strongly prove that they are not supporting the genuine cause of the IPs, but the cause of the NPA terrorists and the Communist Party of the Philippines whose ambition is to overthrow the government and gain political power through a bloody revolution,“ Maca said in his social media post.
Bucales, together with his companions Alberto Dela Peña and Artemio Muldez, was killed in an ambush at around 4 p.m. Sunday as they were travelling to Barangay San Isidro. Three other companions were wounded in the attack.
Meanwhile, it was reported that the IP Tribal Council of Lianga will file human rights violation and criminal cases against the NPA for violation of the International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020.
Read more: Tribal leader, 2 others killed in Surigao del Sur