“Justice and respect to our rights must be given to us and not the military carrying chairs who deprived us to learn.”

CAGAYAN DE ORO — Soldiers were praised after they trekked the mountainous terrain of Talaingod, Davao del Norte, to deliver school chairs for Lumad children.

However, for Lala Empong, a young Lumad victimized by closure of Indigenous schools in Mindanao, the entry of the Philippine Army’s 60th Infantry Battalion is an “insult” to Lumad students who were deprived of their right to education.

This is also an insult, she said, to their fellow Lumad who were allegedly killed by the military and paramilitary, citing the murder of Lumad student Obello Bay-ao and Datu Kaylo Bontolan.

“Justice and respect to our rights must be given to us and not the military carrying chairs who deprived us to learn,” Empong, chairperson of grassroot organization Sabokahan To Mo Lumad Kamalitanan (Unity of Lumad Women), said in the vernacular.

On July 11, more than 100 soldiers went trekking to deliver school chairs to the hinterland of Sitio Nalubas, Barangay Palma Gil, Talaingod. The Army also provided school bags and supplies to the children.

Lumad schools operated by the Salugpungan Ta Tanu Igkanuon Community Learning Center and established by non-government organizations and Lumad communities used to be located in this barangay. More than 50 Salugpungan schools across the Davao region were shut down during the Duterte administration, linking these schools to the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).

Read: Groups urge gov’t to prioritize reopening of Lumad schools in Mindanao

Empong belongs to the Obo-Manobo tribe. Her family was among the hundreds of Lumad families from the towns of Talaingod and Kapalong in Davao del Norte and San Fernando and Kitaotao in Bukidnon who sought refuge at the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) Haran in Davao City due to militarization and harassment by state-backed paramilitary.

She was a student of Mindanao Interfaith Services Foundation Incorporated (MISFI) Academy, a learning institution that provided Indigenous education in Kitaotao, Bukidnon. Due to their school’s closure, she continued her studies at the Bakwit school inside the University of the Philippines Diliman.

The Lumad youth viewed the military’s initiative as an act that normalizes military presence in schools that must be “zones of peace.”

Human rights group Karapatan Southern Mindanao, on the other hand, called the Army-led activity a “public relations stunt.” The group stressed the military’s role in the forcible closure of Lumad schools.

“The AFP branded [the Salugpungan schools] a ‘terrorist’ front, leading to its closure. Now the same battalion returns carrying chairs and calls it charity. This is not generosity. It is whitewashing,” Fr. Ely Cayao, chairperson of Karapatan Southern Mindanao.

According to the Save Our Schools Network, an alliance of various organizations pushing for children’s right to education, more than 200 Indigenous schools in Mindanao were closed during the Duterte administration which affected thousands of Lumad students.

Karaptan said the closure of these schools cannot be detached from the violence suffered by the Lumad. It also decried the child abuse conviction of Lumad school teachers and progressive lawmakers following their solidarity mission in Talaingod. The court ruling alarmed the United Nations special rapporteurs on the situation of human rights defenders and on the right to education.

Read:Advocates renew calls for Talaingod 13 conviction reversal

What the government should do, the human rights group said, is to reopen the Lumad schools, protect the children and teachers from red-tagging, and stop the criminalization of human rights defenders and the militarization in Indigenous communities.

“The AFP cannot erase its record with furniture,” Cayao said. (DAA)

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