There is still a month before the Balikatan exercises begin in Bicol, but already, preparations for these have claimed the life of a one-year-old girl and brought about US military intervention – with US troops manning checkpoints that have been set up across the region, most notably those in Pili, Camarines Sur and Matnog, Sorsogon.
BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
Bulatlat
There is still a month before the Balikatan exercises begin in Bicol, but already, preparations for these have claimed the life of a one-year-old girl and brought about US military intervention – with US troops manning checkpoints that have been set up across the region, most notably those in Pili, Camarines Sur and Matnog, Sorsogon.
Jocelyn and her three children – Ina, 5; Daisy, 4; and Rafaela, 1 – had just finished lunch at the house of her sister-in-law Eufemia in Barangay (village) Balanac, Ligao, Albay on Feb. 18 when they heard gunfire from a distance.
They prepared to run for safety to her mother’s house but never got around to doing so. Before they knew it, Eufemia’s house had been hit by a grenade. Jocelyn and her children were all wounded in the explosion, as were Eufemia and her son Julius and daughter Nene. Rafaela was the most seriously injured of them all, suffering wounds on her back and nape. They were all rushed to the nearest hospital, where Rafaela died around 24 hours later.
Members of the Bikolano Alliance for Nationalism against Balikatan (BAN BALIKATAN) burn US flags in one of their demonstrations against the Balikatan military exercises and the Visiting Forces Agreement. (Photo from Arkibong Bayan)
In a phone interview, Jocelyn told Bulatlat that in the last few days before the bombing, soldiers had been harassing their fellow villagers, accusing them of sheltering New People’s Army (NPA) guerrillas. One man would have been beaten up had his wife not intervened, she said.
“Wala naman kaming nakikitang NPA do’n sa lugar namin” (We don’t see NPA guerrillas in our area), she said.
At the hospital, Jocelyn said, soldiers visited them and gave them “some” money for their medical expenses. She did not say how much, only that it was just a “small amount”.
Jocelyn and the others have been discharged from the hospital, but are still far from being well.
“Kumikirot-kirot pa y’ong sugat ko” (My wound still hurts a bit), she said. “Y’ong isang anak ko, si Ina, kailangan pang operahan y’ong sugat niya sa ulo.” (My daughter Ina still needs to have her head wound operated on.)
