MARCH is fire prevention month. But there's a different kind of fire raging here in the country.
The fire is a raging forest fire in the mountains of Abra, caused by air strikes by the Philippine Army last March 16.
Four fighter jets from the 24th Infantry Battalion dropped at least 14 bombs in communities in Malibcong, Abra that started a forest fire and damaged rice fields of indigenous communities.
Some 56 families including 200 children were displaced and classes suspended, this according to reports from human rights group Karapatan.
This is happening because of an "all-out war" waged by the Defense Secretary against communist rebels after the peace talks were canceled in February, and soldiers are emboldened by the president's call to "flatten the hills" to strike down their enemy.
There are other similar fires in Mindanao, volleys of gunfire in Kitcharao, Agusan del Norte last March 14 forced 300 people to flee from their homes.
Last February 26, a hail of gunfire from an encounter between soldiers and NPAs rained on houses and farmlands in Asuncion, Davao del Norte. This March 11, army helicopters and fighter planes dropped 10 bombs in Brgy. Cabuyoan, Mabini, Compostela Valley, displacing 200 people.
But what are flattened instead are houses and farms as classes and livelihood are disrupted.
One of the victims, a store owner in Mabini, in a video interview on Breakaway Media, chastised President Duterte: "Dear President, we are related in blood, please send these soldiers to Basilan. Who are they to say they will 'flatten the hills'. This is what pains us, that we have become collateral damage. Our lives should not be sacrificed."
Karapatan spokesperson Cristina Palabay urged Duterte to not just grieve for fallen soldiers, but also for the farmers and lumads victimized by this all-out war who are "affected by bombings… far from the direct reach of the government and social services."
"You say and grieved that you have lost soldiers, but you are losing constituents as well – the majority of the poor people you have sworn to protect when you took oath as President. The peasants, the indigenous people, the urban poor and the many others in the countryside, are they not what constitute the majority of the Filipino people? Shouldn’t you also grieve for their loss and mourn with their families?” asks Palabay.
At this point, we see the fires stoked by the generals, one that makes people in communities rage against the men in fatigues and the machines they bring.
The fires of war only benefits the generals, not the people nor the presidency who want peace that brings food, farms and jobs to the land.
The urgency for peace talks and movements in other sectors and grassroots are the ways to douse this fire of the generals, and bring the flow of peace and justice for the land.
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