In recent months, indigenous Dulangan Manobo, Moro and settlers living in the vast Daguma Range have been enduring military operations by units of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) that has brought suffering and numerous human rights violations to their communities.

Currently, troops from the 37th IB, 57th IB and 40th IB are encamped in parts of Barangay Hinalaan, Barangay Datu Wasay and Barangay Sangay, all within the municipality of Kalamansig, Sultan Kudarat. After conducting a brigade-sized combat operation in May, they occupied the communities under the guise of a community support program operation (CSPO).

While encamped, the soldiers forbid residents from going into the forest to check their traps for wild boar and deer, which serve as their alternative livelihood. They also dictate the hours when farmers can go to their fields. According to residents, this worsens the poverty they experience and destroys their way of life.

The soldiers also called “pulong-pulong” (community meetings) to intimidate residents against helping units of the New People’s Army (NPA). In these meetings, they threatened residents against assisting the NPA and warned against helping the group buy supplies, secure money, or transport and fetch its members, or else face 12 years in prison. The livelihoods of small store owners are affected because they no longer buy goods to sell in fear of being accused of assisting the NPA.

Soldiers also approached the families of those they suspect of being full-time Red fighters and threatened them with two years of imprisonment. This is to pressure their combatant relatives to surface and “surrender.”

The presence and activities of the AFP in these communities violate human rights and international rules of war, which prohibit the intimidation, coercion and harassment of civilians in areas of armed conflict.