A consultation between leaders of indigenous people (IP) and presidential bet Leodegario “Ka Leody” De Guzman and members of the Partido Lakas ng Masa (PLM) Senate slate in Barangay Butong, Quezon Municipality, Bukidnon province was rocked by gunfire on Tuesday, April 19.
De Guzman; PLM Senate bets Roy Cabonegro, David D’Angelo; and Manobo-Pulangiyon IP leaders were fired upon by unidentified gunmen during their sortie Tuesday afternoon, April 19.
As of this posting, De Guzman’s camp reported that there were no fatalities although two were confirmed wounded.
They were identified as Nanie Abela, an organizer for the farmer’s sector in Mindanao; and a currently unnamed Manobo-Pulangiyon IP leader.
De Guzman, Cabonegro, and D’Angelo were not reported to have been wounded.
D’Angelo was live streaming the PLM-IP sector meeting on his Facebook page and was able to capture the moment when the shooting began. It can be viewed here (the shooting itself begins at around 15:56):
WATCH HERE: https://fb.watch/cu1t3NAIRK/
De Guzman and members of the PLM Senate slate met with IP leaders in Bukidnon to discuss land grabbing; ancestral land of Manobo-Pulangiyon families had been seized by development corporations in 2017.
“Grabe ang pangyayari, grabe ang karanasan, nakakatakot, nakakagulat, ganito katindi ang panggigipit sa mamamayan sa mga katutubo lalo na kung nangyayari ‘to dito, nangyayari din po ito sa iba’t ibang lugar sa buong Pilipinas (This incident was horrifying, shocking, the harassment against indigenous people is harsh. If this is happening here, it’s happening all over the country),” D’Angelo tearfully said right after the shooting during a livestream.
D'Angelo and De Guzman were taken to the hospital,
WATCH HERE: https://fb.watch/cu1wbFPHQs/
This is a developing story.