DAVAO CITY, Philippines -- Hundreds of tribal families are fleeing their communities for fear of getting caught in the crossfire as government soldiers stepped up the hunt for communist guerrillas who camps were discovered recently.
Evacuees reported that a nine-month-old infant of the Mandaya tribe, Romilyn Cayan, died at an evacuation center where her family sought refuge after fleeing their hinterland village in New Bataan town, Compostela Valley.
But officials in the province said they have not heard of the baby’s death.
The military, on the other hand, while professing no knowledge of the evacuation, claimed any exodus from the hinterlands would have been instigated by the New People’s Army (NPA) to force government forces to cease their operations.
On April 7 and 8, the military began pounding the boundaries of three towns -- New Bataan and Compostela in Compostela Valley, and Baganga in Davao Oriental -- following the discovery of six NPA camps in the area.
The Cayan family, with about 300 other residents of their village, fled to the center of New Bataan or to villages they deemed safe, most of them walking barefoot for an hour to Purok (sub-village) 1, about 150 meters from a gymnasium and town hall that soldiers are now using as a base of operations.
Mariro Poquita, chairman of the Concerned Citizen for People's Rights (CCPR), said Romilyn was very weak when her family arrived in the town center. The infant’s fever went up but the town has no hospital where she could be rushed for treatment.
However, Lucrecia Limen Polinar, municipal information officer, said health officials have not monitored the infant’s death.
Poquita said other children have also contracted diseases, a situation made worse by the lack of food.
Evacuation has also been reported in Sitio Quarry in Barangay Ngan and Sitio Spur Dos in Barangay Taytayan in Compostela.
But Lieutenant Colonel Rolando Bautista, spokesman of the 10th Infantry Division, claimed the military is unaware of the evacuation of hundreds of families, but added that if this was true, it would have been "instigated by the NPA to pressure the military to pull out our forces."
"I think evacuation is very impossible considering that the troops are now in areas where there are no residents … " Bautista said.
He said the military has received reports ranking communist leaders are in the vicinity.
Sitio Quarry, according to a resident, has now become a "ghost town."
Regino Lazola, 54, said in Spur Dos, soldiers set up camp in an elementary school and a Protestant church. Lazola, chair of the Quarry Farmers Association, said the troops arrived in his village and questioned him about NPA members.
"They threatened to kill me because they said I was lying," he said. "One of them also said that if ever they monitor NPA members in our village, they will crush it [village] using cannons."
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