Women's group condemns killing of 3 Lumads in Surigao del Sur


Women's alliance GABRIELA condemned the killing of three Lumads, including a 12-year old student, in Lianga, Surigao del Sur.

Representative photo of bullet cartridge (Photo from Unsplash)

According to Karapatan-Caraga, on June 15, soldiers from the 3rd Special Forces Battalion of the Philippine Army fired at a group of farmers that left Willy Rodriguez, Lenie Rivas, and a 12-year old student of a Lumad school Tribal Filipino Program of Surigao del Sur (TRIFPSS).

The three were reportedly harvesting abaca or manila hemp prior to the incident.

Citing multiple reports, GABRIELA said the victims' faces and limbs were smashed. The genitalia of Lenie and the 12-year-old girl were also reportedly shattered, "leading to credible fears that the soldiers brutally raped them before they were killed."

The group blasted President Duterte for ordering the military to "shoot female rebels in the vagina."

"Those words have since transformed into the reality for Filipino women, NPA combatants, and civilians alike. The brutality that the military dealt upon the female Lumad victims in the Lianga massacre, especially 6th-grade student, is a stark testament to this macabre reality," it said.

GABRIELA added that the Armed Forces of the Philippines "must be held to account for its countless crimes against the Filipino people, especially towards Lumad women, and the women of other indigenous peoples in the Philippines."

The military on Thursday claimed the slain Lumads were suspected communist rebels.