Villages mobbed a soldier who went amok in Barangay Calapaton, Kitaotao, Bukidnon on October 17. The said soldier was drunk and indiscriminately fired his gun, wounding seven civilians. According to residents, the soldier fired his gun after an argument while playing “hantak,” an illegal gambling activity.
The said soldier is a member of the 72nd IB encamped at the adjacent barangay of Calapaton.
According to the New People’s Army in Southern Mindanao, the indiscriminate shooting exposes corruption in the AFP’s Retooled Community Support Program (RCSP). “The RCSP is only a pretext to conduct a joint campaign of psywar against the masses in order to control their movement, suppress them, and stifle their struggles for land, and economic and political rights.”
Several farmers also exposed that they are being summoned by soldiers regularly to “report.” According to them, RCSP disrupts their livelihood. On one occasion, soldier made them wait the whole day just to ask them if they monitored a movement of the NPA in the area.
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