DAVAO City–A teachers’ partylist called on President Duterte to retract his statement that he would order the Army and Air Force to bomb Lumad schools allegedly teaching subersvion and communism.
The representatives of ACT Teachers said Duterte’s statement was an “endorsement of violence and murder against indigenous peoples.”
“It is an order for the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) to target civilians as rebels, and to intensify the militarization of their communities, the threats, intimidation, extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, torture, and charging of trumped-up cases against students, teachers and tribal leaders, and the encampment and destruction by the military of schools,” said ACT Teachers Partylist Representatives France Castro and Antonio Tinio in a statement.
Duterte, in a press conference he made after his State of the Nation Address on Monday, said the communists own Lumad schools but that they are “operating without the Department of Education’s permit.”
“Kasi eskwelahan nila but they are teaching subversion, communism, lahat na. So umalis kayo diyan. Sabihin ko diyan sa mga Lumad ngayon, umalis kayo diyan. Bobombahan ko ‘yan. Isali ko ‘yang mga istruktura ninyo,” said Duterte.
He added: “I will use the Armed Forces, the Philippine Air Force. Talagang bobombahan ko ’yung mga… lahat ng ano ninyo because you are operating illegally and you are teaching the children to rebel against government.”
Teachers said Duterte’s statement amounted to an order to continue the military’s branding of innocents and the institutions nurturing them as rebels and “is more ominous since it comes from the commander-in-chief of the AFP.”
“Lumad communities are now under fire with martial law,” the group said.
They also said that while Duterte accused Lumad schools of training children to be rebels “some of them have long been operating with Deped recognition” and that even the applications of many are “being denied as part of the systematic attack against indigenous peoples which the President is now openly advocating.”
The partylist said that due to the absence of public school offering free education in their areas, “indigenous peoples and community learning centers such as those for the Lumad in Mindanao are established and maintained by people’s organizations and members of the local communities themselves .”
“They are also part of indigenous peoples’ assertion of their right to self-determination,” said ACT Teachers.
“President Duterte should encourage and protect them instead of targeting them as enemies of the state,” they said.
Aside from the concerns of schools, ACT Teachers said they also demand for justice for all victims of militarization of communities, “including the thousands of [evacuees] due to martial law.”
“We demand that he order the military to pull out of civilian communities and end all forms of attacks against Lumad schools and people’s organizations. We demand an immediate end to martial law,” said the group. (davaotoday)
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