TRIBAL LEADER SLAMMED FOR LUMAD RECRUITMENT VS. COMMUNIST REBELS

CHRISTIANS FEAR SEIZURE OF PROPERTY IN ANCESTRAL DOMAIN

A municipal mayor in Compostela Valley wants a tribal leader from Davao City investigated for reportedly organizing indigenous people in the province to rise up against the New People’s Army.

Laac mayor Rey Navarro said he would ask Governor Arturo Uy and the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) to look into the activities of Datu Joel Onad, who has been recruiting tribal people in his municipality for the government’s counter-insurgency campaign.

Navarro feared the recruitment, which was not coordinated with the municipal government, could place the lumads in war-footing with communist rebels. Laac is among Compostela Valley municipalities tagged by military as heavy with rebel presence.

Navarro said the arrival of Onad in his municipality has stirred apprehension among Christian settlers, who had reportedly been told they would be disposed of lands under tribal domain they now occupy.

He may have good intentions by helping government in the anti-insurgency campaign but there are reports tribal natives would be taking over lands owned by Christians, said Navarro who added Onad has his own coterie of bodyguards who may have criminal records.

In Davao City, Onad along with Ruben Labawan, another tribal leader, is known as top officials of the Supreme Tribal Council for Peace and Development (STCPD), an tribal group organized by then commander of Task Force Davao, Col. Eduardo del Rosario and the 73^rd Infantry Battalion, which spearheads the counter-insurgency campaign in Davao City hinterlands.

Onad also organized the Alsa Lumad, a volunteer group composed of indigenous people, which assists the military in the counter-insurgency campaign in Paquibato district in Davao City.

In North Cotabato, Arakan Valley and Bukidnon, Onad is also tagged as an organizer of the Alamara, a civilian volunteer group serving as security for several mining and farming corporations.