DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/28 September) — A total of 116 people, 44 of them students from Salugpongan Ta Tanu Igkanugon Community Learning Center, were barred by the 68th Infantry Battalion and the Talaingod Tribal Municipal Council from going to the school for a four-day celebration that started on Monday.
The school, which caters to Lumads, is located in Sitio Km. 13, Barangay Dagohoy in Talaingod, Davao del Norte.
In a phone interview, Rius Valle, spokesperson of the Save Our Schools Network, said the group set out early on Monday to join in the school’s foundation day and the Bwalawan Festival.
However, upon reaching sitio Daligdigan, Barangay Palma Gil in Talaingod at 4 a.m., members of the 68th IB and some Lumads prevented them from passing through the checkpoint, Valle said.
He said some of the children were frightened after some Lumads who were alleged as members of the paramilitary group Alamara threatened them by shouting and drawing weapons such as bows and arrows.
Those who approached members of the Talaingod Municipal Tribal Council were told they could not enter the ancestral domain where the school is located because they did not coordinate with the council, he said.
Valle said they coordinated with Bae Pilar Libayao, who heads the tribal council, only to be told that they should secure a free and prior informed consent from the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples.
He said they insisted that the consent is only issued for projects or businesses to be implemented within the ancestral domain but to no avail.
“That impedes our right to travel safely,” he said.
Valle said they even tried to coordinate with Talaingod Mayor Basilio Libayao, Pilar’s son, but the official was not around at the time and only his secretary faced them.
They were only told it is the municipal tribal council that has direct jurisdiction when it comes to matters concerning ancestral domain, he said.
“I don’t know where did they get that it is municipal tribal council gives the permission and not the mayor,” he said.
He added they have been invited several times by the Salugpongan Tribal Council to their place for the past 11 years but it was the first time such incident happened.
Salugpongan has six campuses in Davao del Norte, three in Davao Oriental, 14 in Compostela Valley, and one in Davao City with a total of 1,800 students.
In a phone interview, Lt. Col. Vicente de Ocambo, commander of the 68th IB, said they assisted the municipal tribal council in preventing the contingent from passing through.
“Hindi sila nagpaalam sa tribal council. We are just assisting them,” he said.
Valle said the contingent will return to Tagum City for the night and return on Tuesday to try to ask the municipal tribal council to go to the school for the celebration.
Last August, the House committee on human rights held a public hearing in Davao City where the teachers of the Salugpongan and Mindanao Interfaith Services Foundation Inc. Academy renewed their calls for a total pullout of the military and disbandment of Alamara for the alleged human rights abuses committed against the Lumads.
Among the alleged human rights abuses were the presence of military encampments in schools and labeling of these institutions as communist fronts.
“Our teachers have been victims of military harassments and intimidations. They called our teachers NPA (New People’s Army) members and that we are communists. We have been through a lot of discrimination,” said Ronnie Garcia, principal of Salugpongan school in Sitio Dulian, Barangay Palma Gil.
He said the first direct military encampment happened in 2011 in their campus in Sitio Dulian, and such practice spread to other campuses until 2014.
Garcia added that even as there has been no case of direct military encampment inside their campus since last year, the red-tagging of their institution and their teachers as members of the NPA has continued until today, forcing some of the parents to stop sending their children to school.
“They (military) have been telling the parents if they send their children to our school, automatically they become enemies of the state. The children would be discouraged to attend school,” he added.
Capt. Alberto Caber, spokesperson of the Eastern Mindanao Command said they could not just pull out its troops from the communities, as they are there to protect the villagers, government projects, and alleged extortion by the NPA.
He denied military involvement in the operations of mining companies and the creation of Alamara in Lumad communities. (Antonio L. Colina IV/MindaNews)
