Rice fields were left untended, farm animals went astray in the pasture and could not be found one month after farmers in Dilong Valley in Tubo, Abra could not leave their homes for the farms due to a military imposition following a post-Lent five-day bombing.
BY LYN V. RAMO
Northern Dispatch
Posted by Bulatlat
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
Vol. VIII, No. 12, April 27-May 3, 2008
Rice fields were left untended, farm animals went astray in the pasture and could not be found one month after farmers in Dilong Valley in Tubo, Abra could not leave their homes for the farms due to a military imposition following a post-Lent five-day bombing.
“Nalpasen ti tiempo ti panag-arado, nabaybay-an dagiti talon” (The time to plow the rice fields has passed, the fields are left idle), an Abrenian told this journalist. He said even the honey were not gathered when these were due.
His brood and 16 other families in a Dilong Valley barangay (village) could now return to the rice fields and the pasture, but somehow they still have to recollect their shattered dreams for a peaceful life in the valley.
A month of terror ended when the government troops left in early April.
Pananuman folk have finally been left behind by the Army, who, they said, made life difficult for them during the month-long ground and air assault on the communities in what government troops called “draining the ocean to get the fishes.”
“Makaruruar kamin ta awanen dagiti Army” (We are free to go out of the community because the army has left) a local elder from Pananuman told Nordis in a phone interview Sunday. He was referring to the 50th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army, led by a certain Col. James Dillan, which arrived on March 2 in Dilong Valley, which includes four more communities aside from Pananuman.
Fear and anxiety still linger among the local folk of Pananuman and nearby Tubtuba, also a part of the Dilong Valley, according to Jackson Buyagan, 51, a member of the Lupong Tagapamayapa (Peace Council) of Pananuman.
Two elderly women, he said, fainted due to extreme kigtot (fear) resulting from the bombings coupled with the firing of mortar and cannons on the ground.
“Bayat nga agtintinnag ti bomba ti eroplano, agputputok met ti mortar ken kanyon” (While the airplane dropped bombs, mortar and cannons were fired) Buyagan said. He said this went on daily for five days from March 23 to 27. “Pirmi ti kigtot ken buteng mi isunga awanen ti matmaturog iti rabii kadagidiay nga aldaw” (The people’s fear and fright was so great that no one seemed to sleep then), he narrated.
