Army, local govt keep kids in school, promote peace

From the Philippine Information Agency (Feb 24): Army, local govt keep kids in school, promote peace

A total of 456 schoolchildren, composed of preschoolers up to grade six pupils, recently benefitted from the feeding project as soldiers of the 403rd Infantry ‘Peacemaker’ Brigade (403Bde) and Malaybalay City local government worked hand in hand in promoting peace and fighting childhood malnutrition.

Col Eric C Vinoya, 403Bde commander of the Philippine Amy’s 4th Infantry Division (4ID PA), said this feeding program—which aims to facilitate resolution of local issues, improve school attendance, and nutritional status of children especially in remote communities—is a testament to the Philippine Army’s commitment in supporting the government to promote good health among schoolchildren.

In a statement, he said “contrary to the false accusations of the NPA leaders that our troops are doing psychological warfare (PsyWar) and intimidation, the real fact is that we are doing this and many other activities because these are beneficial to communitie. We now challenge the NPAs, especially their leaders, that if they are truly for people, then they should join us in this undertaking. Otherwise, their intentions would be very clear––they would just persecute our troops by capitalizing on local issues and using these things to agitate people, arm them, and let them fight against government with extortion-motivated attacks.”

"I congratulate our troops who, despite New People’s Army (NPA) rebels’ attacks, still they continue risking lives to fulfill the Army's commitment of serving people through our Community Support Program. I commend the troops for their service and I urge people to work together in finding peaceful solutions to local issues instead of using terroristic and violent acts,” he stressed.

As part of the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ “Kalayaan” project, it supports the Department of Education's "Adopt a School" program. It is regularly conducted in far-flung barangays where the brigade’s Community Support Teams are deployed.

In Malaybalay City, BCT Elementary School which has 16 undernourished pupils is just one of the many beneficiary schools of the army’s feeding program. Among which are Barangays Manalog and Kibalabag of Malaybalay City, where, just recently, three soldiers facilitating the program were brutally murdered by NPA terrorists.

It can be recalled that among those soldiers who were brutally murdered earlier this February, was Sgt Owen B. Yee of the 8th Infantry Battalion. He was an advocate of this Feeding Program and was able to serve hundreds of Lumad children in Impasugong town and Malaybalay City, all in Bukidnon.

Other line units specifically the 1st Special Forces Battalion, 8th Infantry Battalion and the 58th Infantry Battalion, are also conducting same program in various IP-dominated areas in Bukidnon and Misamis Oriental provinces in collaboration with local government units and other government agencies.

http://news.pia.gov.ph/article/view/1501487930650/army-local-govt-keep-kids-in-school-promote-peace