Monitor

Dangerous mistake
Can a case of mistaken identity be deadly? For the lumad and migrant settlers of sitio Bendum in Bukidnon, it could be.

On June 17, media inaccurately reported that an armed encounter had taken place between soldiers and the New People’s Army in the sitio. The clash actually took place “in a forest area southeast of Bendum over the provincial boundary in Agusan del Sur near sitio Balaudo, La Paz, which is not widely known,” according to the Manila-based Environmental Science for Social Change (ESSC), an environment group that has a local community project in Bendum.

Bendum is a transit route for various armed groups who have come to regard it as an “informal peace zone.” Being identified as the scene of an encounter at a time when the government has announced an all-out war against rebels is something that the residents of Bendum do not welcome.

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