142. 143. 144. 145. 146. get out of Haran, but to secure the exit of those who wanted to leave the Compound. He said that the entrance gate remained closed despite the long hours of negotiation with the support groups. PSupt. Pepino,134 ground commander of the rescue operation, testified that in accordance with the plan of the inter-agency group, they were to execute the rescue operation upon failure of the dialogue with the support groups. But when the DSWD signaled that the dialogue failed, the people inside the Compound threw stones at the police who were outside the gate. In their defense, the police fought back and, in the course of the melee, one Lumad and two police personnel were injured. PSupt. Pepino tried to prevent the untoward incident. The commotion stopped only when then-Vice Mayor Paulo Duterte arrived. The DSWD,135 for its part, argued that it was within its mandate to conduct rescue operations in cases where the best interest of children is at stake. They believed that the condition in the Compound was unsuitable and detrimental to the development and health of the IP. This was also the observation of the CHR team when it visited those encamped in Haran. The group was housed in tents in a small space that restricted movement. They shared a common washroom and limited water supply. Some 20 newborns were not getting proper medical attention. The Commission grants that the DSWD and the police acted out of good faith stemming from the conviction that the Lumad inside the UCCP Compound needed to be rescued from abject living conditions and, for some, from involuntary detention. It would have been better, however, if they had first obtained the necessary court warrants, especially since, as their testimonies revealed, the rescue operation was planned by an inter-agency committee. The police should have been mindful of the Constitution which requires, as a general rule, the necessity of a warrant prior to the entry of private premises.136 The UCCP Compound is a private property. Having said all the foregoing, however, it is also clear to the Commission that the Civil Society groups inside the Haran Compound did not provide at least some of the Lumad inside the Compound the opportunity to dialogue with representatives of the DSWD to express their decision on whether or not they wanted to remain inside the Compound. Whether some of the Lumad inside the Haran Compound needed rescuing was argued by parties from opposing camps. To the mind of the Commission, however, what is clear is that the Civil Society groups inside the Compound prevented an honest dialogue between some of the Lumad and government personnel from taking place, which would have resolved this issue. This was very unfortunate, especially in view of the allegation from a group of Manobo IPs that they were forced to remain inside the camp against their will, leading to one of their members to commit suicide out of depression from not being able to return to his family in their ancestral home. 134 See summary of PSupt. Pepino’s testimony, para. 132, p. 40. 135 See summary of testimony of Ms. Pedrita Maquiling, paras. 115-119, pp. 35-37. 136 See, Art. III, Sec. __ of the Constitution. 33