AFP spokesman in Eastern Mindanao resigns after admonition from UN exec

The military spokesman in Eastern Mindanao who became controversial for allegedly misquoting United Nations special rapporteur Cheloka Beyani in a press release last week has resigned from his post.

In a statement Thursday,  Col. Eduardo Gubat of the Armed Forces of the Philippines' Eastern Mindanao (AFP Eastmincom) Command also apologized to Beyani "for such oversight and for the inconvenience it has brought."

The apology was issued after Beyani, special rapporteur on the human rights of the internally displaced persons, said that his comments on the situation of displaced indigenous persons in Davao were misinterpreted.

Beyani, in a separate statement, denied that he described the Lumad evacuees in Davao as victims of trafficking.

" I therefore consider that the AFP statement by the Eastern Mindanao Command in its news release on 7 August that the lumads in Davao City are victims of human trafficking is incorrect, unacceptable, and represents a gross distortion of my views on the issue," he said.

Gubat, meanwhile, said "the effect of the statement was not intentional."

"The description of Haran Lumads as trafficked persons was the assessment ofr the AFP's Eastern Mindanao Command and not of [Beyani]," he said.

Gubat further said, "However, the Eastern Mindanao command maintains that Dr. Beyani in his exit briefing described the Indigenous People in Haran are manipulated. The Command takes the said observation constructively as guide in pursuing its mandate of protecting the Indigenous Peoples from the manipulation of unscrupulous individuals and organizations and help alleviate their sufferings and achieve the self determination they are working for." —Rose-An Jessica Dioquino/KBK, GMA News