The military claimed they captured two volunteer Lumad school teachers in an encounter with guerrilla forces in Paquibato District, a claim disputed by the Save Our Schools Network as another propaganda spin to discredit Lumad schools.
Friends and colleagues held an online tribute a week ago for Nestor Burt Sarmiento who died on October 31 from complications of pneumonia that is not COVID-19 related. Sarmiento had worked in various projects for the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines Northern Mindanao (RMP-NMR).
The ninth death anniversary of Italian missionary Fr. Fausto ‘Pops’ Tentorio PIME will fall on October 17. While the quest for justice has dragged on this long, the young people, the Lumad and scholars he had supported will honor his legacy with a tribute for his being “a true servant of the people”.
It is supremely dissonant that, on what is supposedly Indigenous Peoples’ Month in the Philippines, the local police of the province of Kalinga proposes to demolish the monument to three historical figures to the Indigenous struggles of the Cordillera region.
Rights advocates say that presidential peace adviser and retired general Carlito Galvez’s challenge to let European Union and United Nations investigate UCCP Haran’s alleged profiting from the Lumad in its sanctuary may reveal instead the real reason why the Lumad are displaced.