On October 27, 2015 at around 2 o’clock in the afternoon, Mankombete Mariano together with his grandchildren went to pick some Durian fruits in Dumaltong, Sitio Umayam, Canangaan, Cabanglasan, Bukidnon.
The group was happily talking while they tread the trail leading to the durian tree. About five meters before they could reach the tree, a burst of gunfire rang out. The first two gunshots fatally hit Mankombete while Ryan, his grandson, was hit in his left leg. Ryan lost his balance and tumbled down the slope. From his location he identified the perpetrators.
He saw Manlumakad Bocalas ran towards his grandfather who was lying on the ground and hacked Mankombete in the head, left shoulder and left thigh.
When Ryan saw that his companions were fleeing, he attempted to run too but was shot at again in his right leg. Ignoring the wounds he sustained, he ran and was fired upon again with a shotgun. His school backpack that contains his notebooks and 3 empty sacks fortunately save his life. Some metallic ‘shots’ hit the bag on his back while other ‘shots’ hit his right back-shoulder and thigh, and his left arm and hip. He run deep into the forest with 5 other kin to save their lives but Ryan’s condition restrained him to keep at pace with others; he was left behind in the middle of the forest.
Before sunset Ryan went back to the place of the incident so he can keep watch over the dead body of his grandfather. He waited until people from their community would arrive.
Early morning of September 28, 2015, community leaders, parents and kin of Mankobete, Ryan and 4 others went to Dumaltong. They brought food and water intended for those they thought would have survived.
Near the durian tree they found the dead body of Mankombete and they also found Ryan a few meters behind the bushes lying, wounded and weak.
All these fascist attacks happened as ManiLakbayan 2015 was ignored by a regime that is more concerned with how to show the heads of States and other foreign visitors coming for the APEC Summit that it is ‘more fun in the Philippines’, despite poverty, landlessness, and unabated human rights violations.
(ManiLakbayan is a Mindanao People’s Mobilization for Land, the Environment, and Human Rights that brings voices of concern on mining affected communities and the attacks on environment defenders. )