Children from indigenous groups in Mindanao demand to save their schools and stop Martial Law at a nationwide protest near the Batasang Pambansa where President Rodrigo Duterte delivers his second State of the Nation Address on Monday, July 24. (Lorie Ann Cascaro/davaotoday.com)
DAVAO CITY, Philippines — A teachers’ partylist called on President Rodrigo Duterte to retract his statement saying he will order the Army and Air Force to bomb Lumad schools allegedly teaching subersvion and communism.
The partylist lawmakers of ACT Teachers said Duterte’s statement is an “endorsement of violence and murder against indigenous peoples.”
“It is an order for the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) to target civilians as rebels, and to intensify the militarization of their communities, the threats, intimidation, extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, torture, and charging of trumped-up cases against students, teachers and tribal leaders, and the encampment and destruction by the military of schools,” said ACT Teachers Partylist Representatives France Castro and Antonio Tinio in a statement.
Duterte, in a press conference he made after his State of the Nation Address (SONA) Monday, July 24 said the communist own Lumad schools, but that they are “operating without the Department of Education’s permit.”
“Kasi eskwelahan nila but they are teaching subversion, communism, lahat na. So umalis kayo diyan. Sabihin ko diyan sa mga Lumad ngayon, umalis kayo diyan. Bobombahan ko ‘yan. Isali ko ‘yang mga istruktura ninyo. (Because its their school, they are teaching subversion, communism and all. So, you must leave the area. I say to Lumads now, leave. I will bomb it, I will include your structures.)”, said Duterte.
“I will use the Armed Forces, the Philippine Air Force. Talagang bobombahan ko ‘yung mga… lahat ng ano ninyo (I will really bomb it… all of it). Because you are operating illegally and you are teaching the children to rebel against government,” Duterte said.
Meanwhile, ACT Teachers said Duterte’s statement “amounts to an order to continue the military’s branding of innocents and the institutions nurturing them as rebels” and “is more ominous since it comes from the commander-in-chief of the AFP.”
“Lumad communities are now under fire with martial law,” the group said.
They also said that while Duterte accused Lumad schools of training children to be rebels “some of them have long been operating with DepEd recognition” and that even the applications of many are “being denied as part of the systematic attack against indigenous peoples which the President is now openly advocating.”
The partylist said that due to the absence of public school offering free education in their areas, “indigenous peoples and community learning centers such as those for the Lumad in Mindanao are established and maintained by people’s organizations and members of the local communities themselves .”
“They are also part of indigenous peoples’ assertion of their right to self-determination,” said ACT Teachers.
“President Duterte should encourage and protect them instead of targeting them as enemies of the state,” they said.
Aside from the concerns of schools, ACT Teachers said they also demand for justice for all victims of militarization of communities, “including the thousands of bakwits (evacuees) due to martial law.”
“We demand that he order the military to pull out of civilian communities and end all forms of attacks against Lumad schools and people’s organizations. We demand an immediate end to martial law,” said the group.(davaotoday.com)
