The military do not want lumads to be educated

Are you afraid of IPs getting an education?

By JOHN RIZLE L. SALIGUMBA
January 2, 2015


Year in Review

DAVAO CITY – Who’s afraid of educated indigenous peoples?

It seems men in uniform do.

IP schoolchildren, their parents and teachers decried the “pattern of abuses” committed by state security forces directed against their schools, in news events covered by Davao Today in 2014.

Late January last year, children’s advocates sounded off the alarm that troops belonging to the 25th Infantry Battalion occupied classrooms in a remote village in Compostela town.

Students, parents, teachers and staff of a campus of Salugpungan Ta ‘Tanu Igkanugon Community Learning Center Inc. (STTICLCI) in Sitio Side 4, Barangay Mangayon, Compostela were surprised when 36 soldiers barged in at 8am and “threatened teachers while calling their school an NPA (New People’s Army) school.”

Rius Valle of Children’s Rehabilitation Center slammed the incident saying it showed the “blatant disregard of the Army men to international instruments, the Constitution and laws protecting children.”

In a dialog he brokered with village leaders and officials of the Army’s 10th Infantry Division, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte said “it is clear” that “military encampment in a community is prohibited.”

For his part, then 10th ID Commanding Officer Maj. Gen. Ariel Bernardo made some distinction of soldiers in combat operations, saying he “cannot say that soldiers are prohibited in the community” as they are government troops, who are “merely passing by,” or “visiting” or in “encampment.”

Talaingod evacuation

In March, troops from the Army’s 1003rd Infantry Brigade “accosted” village teacher Roilan Licayan including 13 of his students and a barangay functionary in Talaingod, Davao del Norte.

Licayan said they were enroute to another village, in Sitio Panangan to get root crops and livestock in preparation for their school’s graduation.

Licayan said they were held for over an hour by the heavily armed soldiers who searched his personal belongings, read the messages on his phone, questioned his identity implying he was withholding information regarding the presence of NPA guerrillas.

Licayan said the soldiers’ line of questioning sounded like they doubt the school’s credibility, even asking what flag the school is using.

As military operations escalated in Talaingod, school administrators decided to close the school temporarily as over a thousand residents of several villages in Barangay Palma Gil and Barangay Dagohoy left their communities for safety.

The Talaingod Manobos went to Davao City and sought sanctuary in a protestant Bishop’s house for over a month. They struck a deal with local government and military officials to return home once their villages are freed from military troops.

IP pupils resumed school and went on with their graduation rites late in the summer.

Teody Mansimuy-at, also a Salugpongan leader, went back to Davao City in May, complaining that soldiers only “left for less than a month but new Army units are now building up again.”

“They’ve started to occupy a DepEd (Department of Education) school,” he said.

Fanatic IPs

In August, classes of the Mindanao Interfaith Services Foundation Inc. (MISFI) Academy were halted as parents and schoolchildren feared Army troops belonging to 60th IB and 68th IB which begun their operations in Sitio Kapatagan, Barangay Gupitan, Kapalong, Davao del Norte.

Alamara, an anti-communist fanatical group formed by former Task Force Davao Chief Brig. Gen. Eduardo del Rosario in 2001, waged a pangayaw (tribal war) against the NPAs in the areas of Davao del Norte and Davao City.

The IPs belonging to Karadyawan slammed Alamara saying it targetted civilians and disrupted their schools.

In September, human rights and religious groups went to Kapalong and asked the Mayor that they be allowed to conduct an investigation in the area and to have a dialogue with leaders of the Alamara.

The dialogue was aborted as organizers said Alamara members intended to ambush their contingent.

School staff, advocates targetted

Early October, a support group organizer of Karadyawan survived a slay attempt in Tagum City.

Lito Sampag, spokesperson of Karadyawan said “the slay attempt against Dennis Selebrado aims to break our unity and to destroy Karadyawan as an organization. Dennis helped us in every step of the way, even in looking for sponsors for supplies and technical needs of the schools.”

Last October 16, authorities at a PNP-Army checkpoint arrested an alleged NPA leader, Dominiciano Muya at around 1:45 pm last October 16 in Barangay Mankilam, Tagum City.

STTILCI decried the arrest saying Muya was not an NPA but an agriculturist who worked for their schools.

Muya was arrested by virtue of a warrant of arrest docketed as Criminal Case Nr 2252 for the crimes of robbery with double homicide and damage to properties and Criminal Case Nr 20162/20163 for the crimes of multiple murder and double frustrated murder.

Sister Marisol Huertas and Brother Edgardo Campos who are both members of Rural Missionaries of the Philippines (RMP)-Southern Mindanao Coordinating Body, said that on the day Muya was arrested, “he was canvassing for construction materials for the school’s construction.”

“He was a consultant for sustainable agriculture program of RMP-Southern Mindanao in 2003 and became a staff in 2007 managing the sustainable agriculture program and school construction upon the establishment of the Salugpongan Ta’ Tanu Igkanogon Community Learning Center in the same year which is assisted by RMP Southern Mindanao,” said the RMP in a statement.

More harassment

In October, 68th IB soldiers allegedly indiscriminately fired at two elementary schools in Talaingod.

According to residents, drunken soldiers went berserk and fired a volley of shots from 6:30 to 7 pm and at 9 pm last October 11.

Arsen Sumeg-ang, a brother from the Missionaries of Jesus and an Igorot, said “salute your elders for enduring the sacrifices to give you education and a good future. You too must endure the sacrifices for the generations to come as your struggle has not yet ended, it will be more difficult and perhaps will also be bloodier.” (davaotoday.com)