Now that the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 is merely four days away from officially taking effect, following its publication in the Official Gazette last July 3, the situation of national minorities are subjected further to grave danger as blatant attacks and red-tagging of Lumad schools become legalized.
Under Duterte’s regime, state forces including the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) have been greatly funded compared to the budget of other crucial sectors concerning agriculture, labor, education, and health. Last month, as the government desperately pools for funds to combat the mismanaged COVID-19 pandemic on top of the country’s piled-up debt, a staggering amount of P8.4-billion budget has been cut to the Department of Education (DepEd) affecting its subsidiary programs and attached agencies.
Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Basic Education, Arts and Culture feared that this budget cut on education would greatly increase the number of dropouts in schools, as 80 percent of DepEd’s enrollment come from the marginalized sector.
As the country prematurely transitions to the ‘new normal,’ amplified by the impending effect of the briefly railroaded contentious Anti-Terror Law, the government simply reveals itself to be prioritizing only one thing–crackdown on dissent.
Since the lockdown last March, attacks, threats, arbitrary arrests, aerial bombardment, and trumped-up charges against Lumad students, parents, and educators have been underway amid a supposed Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) and the government’s unilateral ceasefire declaration with the New People’s Army (NPA).
Read: https://www.facebook.com/katribu.upd/posts/1211842975823766
With the Anti-Terror Law about to take its effect in just a few days, University of the Philippines (UP) Alumnus, community volunteer, human rights activist, and Lumad teacher Chad Booc, in an exclusive interview with SINAG, reveals the dangers of the said law especially to Lumad teachers who have been red-tagged non-stop by military forces.
“Isa kasi kami sa nangunguna laban sa pagpasok ng mga dayuhang minahan sa mga lupang ninuno sa Mindanao, kaya labis ang pagbabanta sa amin. Sa katunayan, ilan sa aming mga kasamang teacher ay sinampahan na ng gawa-gawang kaso dahil umano sa pagsama [nila] sa [gawaing rebelde] ng NPA,” Booc bravely discloses.
(We are one of those at the forefront in fighting against the entry of foreign mining companies in the ancestral lands in Mindanao, so we are very much threatened. In fact, some of our fellow teachers have already been charged with fabricated cases for allegedly joining the rebellious activities of the NPA.)
Booc has been one of the many student leaders who have been attacked by various fake accounts under his identity–blatantly red-tagging and condemning him for choosing to be vocal against state fascism and for being in service of the Lumad community. Now, he fearlessly exposes the realities of the national minorities under the state’s imperialism.
“Hindi bababa sa 143 na mga civilian ang may trumped-up charges sa Caraga region, sa 143 na iyon, 50 ang mga guro at lider ng mga magsasaka at Lumad,” the human rights activist uncovered the numbers.
(At least 143 civilians have trumped-up charges in the Caraga region, of those 143, 50 are teachers and leaders of farmers as well as the Lumad.)
Further trampling over the Indigenous Peoples’ historical fight for autonomy, recognition, and right to ancestral lands, DepEd continues to mercilessly shut down Lumad schools as DepEd agrees, along with the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), to be support agencies of the Anti-Terror Council. Following its formal order of permanently shutting down 55 Lumad schools in the Davao region last October 2019, Booc exposes that this has now added as much to 163 schools.
“Higit 4,000 kabataang Lumad ang nawalan ng access sa libre at dekalidad na edukasyon. Sa ngayon, patuloy pa rin ang pag-target sa mga paaralan namin, ang TRIFPSS (Tribal Filipino Program of Lianga, Surigao del Sur) at ALCADEV (Alternative Learning Center for Agricultural and Livelihood Development),” the Lumad teacher said in despair.
(More than 4,000 Lumad youth have lost access to free and quality education. Today, we are still targeted in our own schools, TRIFPSS and ALCADEV.)
Education has been a crucial right that the national minorities have long fought for as they are often discriminated and neglected by the state. Now that these communities are slowly gaining access to proper education as well as a bright future, state forces have continued to bomb these schools and ruthlessly gun down teachers along with its students.
Last March 29, 2019, UP Diliman held a moving-up ceremony for Grade 10 Lumad students as the university served as a “Lumad Bakwit School” for students who needed a sanctuary amid the aerial bombardment of their schools and blatant killings of the members of their tribe. It catered to 70 Lumad students from Grades 3 to 11. Among the awards that these students received were “Mahusay sa Pagsisiyasat ng Lipunan” (Excellent in Analyzing Society), “Matapat” (Honest), “Munting Gabriela Silang” (Little Gabriela Silang), “Mahusay sa Matematika” (Excellent in Mathematics), and the like.
Now, this is the future that the Duterte administration has been curtailing ever since it assumed into position. The Anti-Terror Law takes effect merely four days from now, and the future of these kids, who have yearned for education to be able to fight for their rights and finally give back to their communities, are at stake more than ever.
No other future shall be darkened nor shut down by a fascist, imperialist, and an incompetent government. These officials did not even deserve the public’s trust because after all, the people already know the ones who are tremendously uneducated.
This article was originally published last July 14, 2020.
