KORONADAL CITY—Five foreign activists, who joined a group investigating last year’s deaths of seven “lumad” (indigenous peoples) in South Cotabato province, were stopped at a government checkpoint in Tupi town and briefly held for questioning on Thursday. ClashADVERTISEMENTFuentes said the group came from the town of Lake Sebu to look into the Dec. 3 killing of lumad tribal chieftain Victor Dayan and six others. The military earlier said the seven lumad died after government soldiers clashed with a group of New People’s Army rebels. The human rights group Karapatan, however, said the lumad, who were in their farm to harvest their crops, were unarmed. [They] went to Lake Sebu to probe the massacre of Dulangan Manobos … who defended their ancestral land.” —REPORTS FROM JEOFFREY MAITEM AND EDWIN FERNANDEZADVERTISEMENT

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer February 22, 2018 21:56 UTC