Participants to the first Lumad Children's Congress in Surigao del Sur sing the national anthem. (photo from Save Our Schools Network)
The September 1 murder of Emerito Samarca, executive director of the award-winning Alternative Learning Center for Agricultural and Livelihood Development in Han-ayan, Lianga, Surigao del Sur, which triggered the exodus of more than 3,000 lumad in the province, was hardly an isolated incident.
Some 200 schoolchildren and teachers attending the first Lumad Children’s Congress that opened Tuesday in Surigao del Sur’s capital Tandag City said tribal schools set up by religious and nongovernmental organizations throughout Mindanao, and which state security forces have openly tagged as advocating support for communist rebels, have come under attack 95 times, or an average of eight times a month, since September last year, the Save Our Schools Network, which helped organize the event, said.
Among the cases the children reported were the harassment by soldiers and military-backed militias of schools run by the Salugpongan Ta' Tanu Igkanogon Community Learning Center Inc. and the Mindanao Interfaith Services Foundation Inc.
Among the latest incidents is the attempt by the chairman of Barangay White Culaman in Kitaotao, Bukidnon to shutter the MISFI-run Fr. Fausto Tentorio Memorial School, a free boarding for Grade 7 and 8 lumad students.
In Davao City, some 700 Manobo, mostly from Talaingod, Davao del Norte have been staying for months at the Haran Mission House of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines, where they sought refuge after soldiers and the Alamara militia occupied their tribal schools and communities and threatened teachers and students. Even education officials in the province backed moves to close the lumad schools and have soldiers deployed to the tribal villages as “para-teachers.”
Just this Wednesday, a lumad refugee was stabbed as he walked back to Haran after marketing while motorcycle-riding men tailed and harassed volunteer teachers holding classes for schoolchildren at the refugee center.
The Haran refugees were also the target of a violent attempt in late July to evict them and force them to return to their communities after the military and North Cotabato Representative Nancy Catamco, who chairs the House committee on indigenous people, claimed they were not evacuees but “manipulated” victims of “trafficking” being held against their will by groups, including religious organizations, allegedly sympathetic to the rebels.
“Lumad children have been exposed to life-threatening conditions as their schools are continuously being occupied and/or attacked by state security forces,” Professor Mae Fe Templa, SOS Network convenor, said.
At the congress, Roland Dalin, a student of the Salugpongan in Talalingod, lamented: “Nagtapok man ‘mi karon tungod kabalo mi nga naa mi’y matabang labi na sa among eskwelahan nga kanunay gina-atake sa mga militar, ginapasanginlan nga mga NPA ug ginapatay among mga magtutudlo (We are gathered here today because we know that we can help our school that have been always subjected to military attacks, accused of being NPAs and our teachers killed).”
Congress participants were given workshops, at one in which they wrote their demands for President Benigno Aquino III to protect their schools by ordering military and militia units pulled out of their communities.
Rosalinda Pimentel, the wife of the Surigao del Sur governor, joined the congress reading stories to the children.
Governor Johnny Pimentel has demanded that the military “disarm, disband or kill” the militias it created and which he said have been sowing havoc on lumad communities for the past six years.
Rosalinda Pimentel, wife of Surigao del Sur Gov. Johnny Pimentel, reads to participants at the first Lumad Children's Congress. (photo from SOS Network)
http://www.interaksyon.com/article/118668/tribal-schools-attacked-8-times-a-month-since-sept-14---lumad-kids-teachers
Commies love to throw around statistics both real and imagined. The Save Our Schools Movement is a CPP front and the "first Lumad Children's Congress in Surigao del Sur" appears to part of a well-orchestrated propaganda campaign targeting the Philippine military.
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