While the UP community is still mourning the death of its alumnus, Kevin Castro, on February 21, news about a new massacre involving another UP graduate broke out three days later. Chad Booc, a volunteer Lumad teacher, was identified as one of the casualties in a military operation in New Bataan, Davao de Oro, on February 24.
The UP Diliman Office of the Chancellor Executive Staff released an official statement on March 7, condemning the actions of the Armed Forces of the Philippines to the highest degree for killing Chad Booc and Kevin Castro, and vowing to continue to defend academic freedom.
“We are proud to honor their lives and remember them as among the best of our students and the best of our teachers,” read the statement.
However, Undersecretary Lorraine Badoy, spokesperson for the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), released misleading statements two days later addressing the UP statement.
In her Facebook posts, she alleged former UP students who were then involved with the CPP-NPA, stressing the deaths of Chad Booc and Kevin Castro.
She went on to state that UP officials, specifically UPD Chancellor Fidel Nemenzo, have been protecting and enabling the terrorist organization in UP.
“And while they lived, how many iskolar ng bayan, destroyed and ended the lives of the very people they were supposed to serve,” Badoy claimed.
In another Facebook post later that same day, Badoy claimed that the UP statement was “straight out of the CPP-NPA-NDF”.
She stated that the CPP-NPA continues to divide the Filipino people, citing that in reality, many members of the UP community are actually in support of the NTF-ELCAC and the Duterte administration’s plight to end the armed conflict.
She said: “Hindi kasali sa minura natin ang CPP kasi nakatago sila at nakamaskara. Ganyan ang galawan ng mga duwag, sinungaling, walang modong mga komunistang yan.”
CLAIM 1: “He [Chad Booc] died as an NPA cradling the M16 he used in fighting government troops in a legitimate encounter that the tribal elders of New Bataan have themselves verified.”
Chad Booc was a volunteer Lumad teacher in Mindanao. After graduating cum laude in BS Computer Engineering in UP Diliman, he volunteered to be a mathematics and science teacher for an Agricultural and Livelihood Development (ALCADEV) Lumad school in Surigao del Sur. The NPA clarified that Booc, and the rest of the New Bataan 5, were not in any way involved or were part of their ranks.
Save Our Schools (SOS) Network also refuted the military’s claim that there was a ‘legitimate encounter’ between the NPA and the military forced, and called for a fair and thorough investigation.
“What the AFP claims as an ‘encounter’ is in fact a massacre of civilians in the area. And in its attempt to justify these gruesome killings, the armed forces once again twist the truth to play into their narrative as they have done many times before,” stated SOS.
The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) information officer Marco Valbuena also tweeted that there was no encounter between them and the military, according to the local NPA unit in the area.
Moreover, preliminary autopsy findings made by Dr. Raquel Fortun revealed that Booc and his companions may have died from homicide as the manner of their death signify their killer’s “intent to kill.”
CLAIM 2: “[Kevin Castro] made the mistake of joining the National Union of Students of the Philippines (NUSP), one of the many fronts UP allows to lure its students into the path of violent extremism…”
Kevin Castro was also a graduate of UP Diliman and a former chairperson of UPD College of Education Student Council. He was NUSP spokesperson in 2016.
He was killed in an alleged encounter with the 1st Infantry Battalion in Polillo, Quezon last February 21 while serving as a teacher in far-flung communities.
The NUSP was established in 1957 and is known to be the longest-existing, progressive alliance of all student councils and student governments nationwide. It advocates for the advancement of students’ democratic rights and welfare.
NUSP has also led various leadership training seminars and is a member of the Asian Student Association (ASA) and the International Union of Students (IUS).
NUSP is not part of the CPP-NPA-NDF organization and operates as a legal organization of youth student-leaders.
CLAIM 3: Save our Schools Network is CPP-created and CPP-led and are built terrorist training camps. Salugpungan, TRIFPSS, ALCADEV, and MISFI are organizations wherein some of the “worst crimes against our indigenous peoples were committed…”
Save our Schools Network is a network composed of non-government organizations focusing on children, church-based groups, and other stakeholders who are collectively advocating for children’s right to education.
The objective of the network is to expose and take action on the many accounts of violation against children’s education, more specifically in the context of attacks and militarization of schools.
Salugpungan Schools are formal learning institutions that aim to provide basic education to the Manobo. It began as a literacy-numeracy school for the Talaingod Manobo children in 2003. It was even accredited by the Department of Education (DepEd) in 2007.
However, DepEd ordered the shut down of 55 Salugpungan schools in Davao, claiming that the schools have various regulatory violations and deficiencies, and compliance issues regarding school management.
The Tribal Filipino Program in Surigao del Sur (TRIFPSS) and ALCADEV are non-government organizations providing education to the indigenous youth in the Caraga region. Besides basic education, these groups also teach livelihood and agricultural programs more inclined to the indigenous peoples’ culture and lifestyle.
Meanwhile, Mindanao Interfaith Services Foundation Inc. (MISFI), is a non-stock, non-profit organization serving the three marginalized groups of Mindanao: Christian, Lumad, and Moro communities. Currently, the MISFI Academy has 32 campuses in the 4 regions of Mindanao.
Badoy’s claims are usual part of NTF-ELCAC’s script to red-tag youth dissidents. With three months remaining, the Duterte administration is hell-bent on stifling the people’s democratic rights which Booc and Castro died fighting for.
The ultimate fact remains that Booc and Castro are not terrorists as Badoy claimed but it is the very agency which Badoy speaks for that has allowed statet terrorism to terrorize communities and the youth they claim to protect and defend.
#StopTheKillings
#JusticeForNewBataan5
#AbolishNTFELCAC
Photo courtesy of Manila Bulletin, Kevin Castro, and Save our Schools Network
