He lost his father three years ago, when he was 22. He is Danny Diarog, a young tribal leader from Bagobo-Klata in the village of Kahusayan in Davao City. Kahusayan literally means “harmony”, got its name from Danny’s ancestors because it is a place where they settle their conflicts in a peaceful manner.
Their tribe lives at the slopes of Apo Sandawa (commonly known as Mount Apo) which is between the boundaries of Davao City, Cotabato Province and Davao del Sur province. Their tribe has been dependent to their indigenous lands since time immemorial, just like the rest of the indigenous peoples all over the country.
His father died of several gunshot wounds. Two of his siblings were also hit. One of them still has shrapnel buried in her arm, the other lost her toes.
Their house was strafed using high-powered guns by unidentified men believed to be security guards of TV evangelist Pastor Apollo Quiboloy. Known to be “The Son of God” among his flocks in the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, The Name Above Every Name, Quiboloy has gained influence by lending his name and his flock to both local and national politicians whenever warm bodies were needed in times of elections.
Danny Diarog’s father Datu (datu means chief) Dominador Diarog was a staunch defender of their traditional land. It consist mainly of streams and rivers, forest covers, agricultural area which the community shares its bounty. Their traditional land is part of a National Park which by law cannot be bought or sold.
Ironically and by “act of God” (pun intended), the influential pastor and his flock were able to acquire portions of Kahusayan and started developing it as a pine tree plantation known as Glory Mountain. They started fencing of the “20-hectare-property” with concrete posts, barbed wire and galvanized iron sheets. They have driven away the indigenous peoples by force, tearing down their houses to the ground and paying them off a measly sum of money.
At some point, the land of peace and harmony became literally a “ghost town.”
The Commission on Human Rights once reported the incident which led to the death of the elder Diarog as an “extra judicial killing” or EJK. A village official and elements of the military were figured in their report. It was however later changed from “EJK” case to a “plain murder.”
Danny Diarog and the rest of the Bagobo-Klata see it as a way of downplaying their struggle for their land and life as a mere “technicality” that only lawyers can understand.
“It doesn’t matter to us if they will treat the incident as an EJK or murder. One thing is clear to us, my father died defending the land of the Bagobo-Klata. No case was filed up to this date and that shows how inutile our system is,” says Danny during one of the gatherings.
True enough, nothing was filed against the perpetrators. Ironically, cases filed against some of the leaders of Bagobo-Klata are piling up. Cases like robbery and trespassing are being filed by people closely identified with the evangelist.
“We see it as a legal harassment against our people. They can no longer intimidate us with their power so they try to use the legal arena to put us down,” says Danny in an interview.
Danny and his people decided to return to the village of Kahusayan and started building what is left of it. They have called on to concerned agencies like National Commission on the Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) to heed their petition on Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title (CADT).
The Bagobo-Klata has been struggling for their rights over their ancestral domain for decades already and was paid by blood of their ancestors.
For Danny Diarog, the death of his father is not the end of their struggle. The Bagobo-Klata continues to seek the true meaning of what their village used to be, a place of peace and harmony.