Three of the four “holy warriors” of the Alimaong Tribe are held by the Carbon Police in Cebu City on Sept. 19, 2019. They are accused of extortion by Carbon Public Market vendors. But the suspects claim they are only asserting their right to their ‘ancestral land.’ | CDN Digital Photo /Delta Dyrecka Letigio
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Four men claiming to be lumad (indigenous people) wearing military camouflage adorned with native accessories were cuffed for extortion and now await their fate inside the Carbon Police Station in Cebu City.
The men who said they belonged to “Alimaong tribe” and “descendants of Lapulapu” called themselves “holy warriors” whose main job was to protect their “ancestral land” that comprised what is now Barangay Ermita in Cebu City, where the city’s biggest public market, the Carbon Public Market, is located.
For the vendors of Freedom Park at Carbon Market, the four men – Kali Sirol, 41; Datu Elra Kidlat, 40; Kali Panther, 49; and Datu Apo RH Kabales, 48 – were nothing but alleged “extortionists” after these men tried to collect money from them supposedly as rental for vending and staying in their so-called ancestral land.
Police Captain Franklin Tale, the chief of the Carbon Police Station, said that what alarmed the vendors were the weapons the “holy warriors” carried with them, including two large swords, two small knives, a .45 caliber pistol, and live ammunitions.
The report from the vendors prompted the Carbon police to arrest the four individuals and confiscate their weapons.
“Wala raman hinuoy nihatag sa mga tindera. Wala ray sila (suspects) nakuha. (The vendors did not give them money. The suspects did not get anything),” said Tale.
Tale said that the four men will be facing charges of extortion and threats.
Kabales, who claims to be the “solicitor general” of the Alimaong tribe, insisted they were entitled to a lease payment for the land because their tribe owns the place since “prehistoric time.”
He claimed they have documents proving that they own the lot and that they have informed the city government that they would be collecting rent from the Carbon Market vendors for staying in their “ancestral land.”
The Alimaong group, which surfaced sometime in early 2000s in the mountain village of Cebu City, claimed to be an indigenous people’s tribe in Cebu but this is being disputed by authorities.
“Amo nang katungod nga mangayog abang kay amo man ning yuta gikan pa sa mga katiguwangan. Naa man na sa among balaod nga giprotektahan sa RA (Republic Act) 8371 (The Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act of 1997),” said Kabales.
(It is right to ask for rent because this land has been ours since precolonial time. That is part of our law, that is protected by The Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act of 1997.)
He denied that they threatened the vendors to force them to give them money, adding they did not even specify the rent as they were willing to accept any amount.
Datu Bontito Leon Kilat, the group’s representatives, said they would file charges of illegal arrest and detention against the Carbon police.
Tale said the four men were free to file a case against the police but it would not stop the police from charging them for extortion.
Mayor Edgardo Labella said that this problem has been recurring for years now, and he will have to raise the concerns to the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) on how to deal with the Alimaong group claiming to be lumads.
In 2014, Labella, then the city’s vice mayor, has also raised concern about the presence of the Alimaong members recruiting members in the city’s mountain villages.
Read more: Armed tribe recruiting people in mountain barangays
But Labella said he was not worried that these men would cause security problems in the city and if they do, he said the police can step in anytime.
“I believe our officials and law enforcement agencies are on top of that (security),” he said./elb