Lumad leader: IP’s shocked by violent dispersal under Duterte admin

The indigenous people that marched to the US Embassy on Wednesday were shocked with the violence that marred their protest action.

Amirah Ali Lidasan, convener of the minorities group Sandugo, said the protesters were no longer expecting a dispersal by police since similar mass actions have already been allowed under President Rodrigo Duterte.

"We were thinking dahil Duterte administration...sa mga past rallies wala namang binubugbog. Pero nung dumating na ang pambansang minorya, bugbog sarado na kami," Lidasan told GMA News Online.

Lidasan recalled that at Duterte's first State of the Nation Address (SONA), militants were allowed to protest near the Batasan Pambansa, with some of them even meeting the president.

She said indigenous people from Mindanao have already been traumatized by the violence unleashed against them.

"Ang mga pulis sa aming probinsya, sila ay pumapatay, sila ay nagmamassacre, sila ang humuhuli sa amin. Pero mas nagalit kami nung pumunta kaming Manila... Mas mabangis sila lalo," Lidasan said.

Week-long protest

For the first time, representatives of the Moro, Lumad, Cordillera and other indigenous people from each region of the country all convened together for a week-long protest in Metro Manila.

Their rally in front of the US Embassy on Wednesday was only one of their planned activities but it was the one that deeply angered them.

Videos of the rally showed a police mobile running over protesters, and police officers hitting protesters with batons.

Policemen involved in the incident have been relieved from their posts. However, the MPD maintained that it was the rallyists who started with the offensive.

Lidasan said that the treatment they received was a clear case of discrimination against minority groups.

They continued their protest on Friday, marching from Welcome Rotonda in Quezon City to Mendiola in Manila.

But this time, their main call was for the punishment of the police officers responsible for the violent dispersal in front of the US Embassy.

Aside from the rally, the Sandugo group crafted a letter addressed to President Rodrigo Duterte calling for an independent probe on the incident.

Peaceful protest

Unlike Wednesday's rally, the march to Mendiola was peaceful.

Officers of Sta. Mesa Police Station said that there were no orders for dispersal and that they were on standby in case of any untoward incident.

Superintendent Olivia Sagaysay, the station commander, said that the police would would enforce maximum tolerance despite the rally's lack of permit.

"Iniintindi na lang natin. Basta peaceful yung protesta hahayaan lang natin," Sagaysay said.

The indigenous groups went to Manila to protest the militarization and putting up of plantations in their ancestral land in Mindanao. —NB, GMA News