Groups hold confab in defense of schools for indigenous peoples
By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO
Bulatlat.com
Bulatlat.com
The policies of governments today puzzle me: a willingness to
spend billions of dollars on military technologies yet next to none on
education; the oppression and silencing of the few educational
institutions that are improving the lives of marginalized people; the
myriad of promises churned out during election years spurned during
office and the unspoken commitments of making the rich richer, and the
poor poorer. Free and compulsory education is a human right stated by
the United Nations, but a free and compulsory quality education is the
struggle of oppressed peoples in Mindanao and worldwide.
-Adam Shaw, Missionary, Philippines. United Methodist Church
-Adam Shaw, Missionary, Philippines. United Methodist Church
MANILA –Groups asserting the rights of indigenous people’s to
education and protesting against the attacks of the Armed Forces of the
Philippines’ (AFP) have embarked on a campaign of defense.
Earlier this week, the Mindanao Conference in Defense of Schools
Under Attack was launched at the Mission Center, Davao City with 118
teachers, directors of literacy and non-formal schools, community
leaders and school children attending. It was organized by the Kusog sa
Katawhang Lumad sa Mindanao (Kalumaran) or Alliance of Indigenous
Peoples in Mindanao, a Mindanao-wide alliance of indigenous peoples’
organizations some of whose members have partnered with non-governmental
organizations to establish literacy-numeracy programs and other schools
in their communities.
Also among the supporters of the conference are the Sisters
Association in Mindanao (Samin), the Rural Missionaries of the
Philippines – Northern Mindanao Sub-Region; the Center for Lumad
Advocacy and Services (Clans); the Alternative Learning Center for
Agricultural and Livelihood Development (Alcadev); Tribal Filipino
Program of Surigao del Sur (TRIFPSS); the Mindanao Interfaith Services
Foundation, Inc. (MISFI) . Ateneo Public Interest and Legal Assistance
Center; and the Educators’ Forum for Development (EFD).
In a statement, the conference organizers said various community
schools in Paquibato district and in the provinces of Surigao, Agusan,
Davao del Norte, Sarangani, and Bukidnon brave not only the difficult
conditions, but also the threats of the military present in the
communities.
They said the conference aims to draw a common analysis of schools
under attack; draw out collective steps and recommendations toward
upholding and protecting the rights of indigenous children and
educators; to inform government officials, international bodies and the
public of the increasing threats to rural schools and the communities,
and press for holding state security forces accountable for violations
of children’s rights.
Since 2011, the northeastern Mindanao has been used by the AFP as a
staging ground for intensified military operations. Beginning February
2012, the military began to use Lumad ancestral mountain lands as
operations area for their increased attacks against the New People’s
Army (NPA) ranging from live fire excursions to aerial strafing and
bombing runs.
Last July 10, a dialogue was also held in Ateneo de Davao between
community schools and government officials to address the issue of
defending the community’s rights to education.
“We call for action from the government to uphold our right to
education and defend our community schools from continuing harassments
from the military. For so long, we Lumads have suffered from conditions
of discrimination and neglect, the plunder of our ancestral land, and
the exploitation and ridicule of our culture. Amid such conditions, we
have made efforts to unite our people and uphold our rights. We make
efforts such as establishing schools through the support of church
organizations and non-government organizations,” the groups said.
According to IP rights advocates, education for the Lumad people is
not only an instrument to teach them the basic literacy and numeracy, ”
It is also an instrument to teach the lumad children our culture, our
traditions, our direction as a people. Education becomes an instrument
to teach our children to defend our land. Education is our right,” they
said.
The schools of IPs, however, continue to be attacked by the AFP and
and its counter-insurgency campaign. In Davao del Norte, Paquibato
district in Davao, Bukidnon, Surigao del Sur, Sarangani, there have
continuing reports of the AFP threatening the safety and security of the
schools for IPs, so much so that the schools have been forced to close.
“There is a common threat to schools, and this is the presence of
soldiers in pursuit of ‘peace and development’ programs in far-flung
communities. With such programs, soldiers have occupied our
communities, questioned the existence of our schools, interrogated our
teachers, and branded our schools as ‘rebel schools’. Wherever our
schools are, government soldiers have began to conduct classes for
children. We wonder why they take over our functions. They also brand
us lumads as ‘enemies of the state’. Thus, harassments and killings of
our people continue to happen,” the educators said.
The groups said that because the Aquino administration has done
little or even nothing to do away with the culture of impunity regarding
human rights violations, many Lumad communities live in fear,
particularly the children whose schooling are affected.
They charged that the presence of the military is advanced by Oplan
Bayanihan that protect investments and projects such as agri-business
expansion, large-scale mining, hydro and power projects that has
encroached on the Lumad people’s ancestral lands. IP’s food and water
security also continue to be threatened by these operations.
Given the extreme context and social circumstances that they face,
the IP advocacy groups said that their schools use a curriculum that is
appropriate and relevant for developing their communities and ancestral
domain.
They, however, face the difficulty of meeting what they said were
the “voluminous requirements” set by the Department of Education, the
agency that gives the permit for operations for Lumad schools.
“We believe that education is a right. We believe that government as
a signatory to international instruments is duty-bound to fulfill its
responsibility to education as stated from the United Nations Convention
on the Rights of the Child, the Millennium Development Goals, UN
Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the International
Humanitarian Law. We appeal to our government, through its local
officials, agencies, representatives to uphold and defend our right to
education,” the groups said.
The participants of the conference issued a list of demands to the
Aquino government, saying that President Aquino has a very long way to
go to prove that his administration is different from its predecessors.
They said when it comes to human rights, the Aquino government, in its
first two years, has shown a shocking indifference to the violations
against them.
Among the demands the IP groups laid down are the immediate pullout
of military and paramilitary units in all IP communities for the safety
of the people especially the children; the scrapping of all policies,
programs and laws that push mining and other investments and projects
that plunder the country’s natural resources; the holding of
investigations into the cases of harassment by the military and
paramilitary against children and school personnel; and for the
government to ensure that services to education, health and other social
services are provided to the poorest of the poor, especially the Lumads
in Mindanao.
“We call on the government and its agencies to recognize if not
respect the efforts of our community schools, which have the commitment
to serve in places where government support is lacking. We make this
appeal in hopes that education will be upheld, an education that helps
in our liberation and in shaping our future and community,” they said.
In the first quarter of 2012, at least 125 families from various
Mamanwa communities in the adjacent barangays of Ombong, Alegria in
Surigao del Norte and Bangayan, Kitcharao in Agusan del Norte have been
forced to evacuate because of continuous military operations. Among the
evacuees are 53 children all 6 years old and below, and 52 women, nine
of whom are pregnant. Children have since stopped going to school and
families have been prevented from returning to their farms, losing
crops, farm animals and their livelihood in the process.
Adam Shaw of InPeace Mindanao, said that schooling and free education
through high school is deemed a human right by the UN, “but this is a
human right that most Filipinos cannot afford due to no viable education
budget in the national governments yearly expenditures,” he said.
“Education at government public schools is a privilege that few can
afford. Many communities rely on missionary, non-government
organizations- supported schools. Unfortunately, many of these schools,
teachers and students, are coming under psychological and physical
attack in recent years by military and paramilitary forces who seek to
‘defend’ investor’s interest in Lumad communities,” he said.
Source: http://bulatlat.com/main/2012/07/13/groups-hold-confab-in-defense-of-schools-for-indigenous-peoples/
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