No need to 'rescue' Lumads at school's retreat house, University of San Carlos says
MANILA, Philippines — The University of San Carlos in Cebu on Monday said Lumad students whom police said they rescued were staying at the school's retreat house as guests and were already preparing to go back to their home province in batches.
This came after police and social welfare personnel stormed a retreat house in the university's Talamban campus in what the government says was a "rescue operation."
READ: 21 taken away as police raid Lumad Bakwit School in Cebu
In a joint statement, Society of the Divine Word Philippines Southern Province and the University of San Carlos said that the delegation of 42 students, five teachers, and three community elders were hosted for a bakwit school program with the Save our Schools Network last year.
However, the program was derailed by quarantine restrictions imposed by the Cebu City government due to the coronavirus pandemic. "After being locked down, the SVD Community has since sheltered the delegation at its retreat house, providing them with comfortable accommodation, and allowing them the use of its facilities for the lumad's recreation," they said.
"It came as a surprise that reports about minors being 'rescued' surfaced today. While [Archdiocese of Cebu - Commission on Social Advocacies] members mentioned that some parents were coming over to fetch their children, it did not dawn on us that the parents' visit will necessitate the presence of policemen."
READ: Joint statement of SVD Philippines Southern Province and University of San Carlos (USC) on the police operation at the Talamban campus of USC Monday morning #TheFreeman pic.twitter.com/AVJew6U72J
— The Freeman (@TheFreemanNews) February 15, 2021
A live video of the operation, which the PNP also referred to as a raid, posted by the Save Our Schools Network showed children screaming in a classroom as they were forced out by men in uniform.
Twenty-one students —15 minors and 6 adults — were taken away in the operation, along with two teachers and two community elders. It is not clear what they were being rescued from, as the teachers did not seem to be armed nor holding them against their will.
According to reports, the minors have been turned over to the Department of Social Welfare and Development.
"Here, no rescue need ever be conducted because the presence of the Lumads in the retreat house was for their welfare and well-being, and all throughout, they were nurtured, cared for, and treated with their best interest in mind," the statement, co-signed by Fr. Rogelio Bag-ao, SVD and Fr. Narciso Cellan Jr., SVD, also said.
PNP claims 'child warrior training'
In a statement sent to reporters, Police Gen. Debold Sinas, chief of the Philippine National Police, said that those arrested in the raid face charges of illegal detention, human trafficking, and violations of Republic Act No. 9851 (International Humanitarian Law Act) and Republic Act No. 11188 (Special Protection of Children in Situations of Armed Conflict).
This was, he said, because the Lumad children who were also taken away from a retreat house run by a Catholic missionary group were "brought to Cebu City to undergo revolutionary training as future armed combatants."
He added that an "initial investigation disclosed" that the Lumad children "were lured to enroll with" Salugpongan School, which he claimed was a "communist front" in 2019.
RELATED: No due process in DepEd order to close Lumad schools — child rights NGO
He claimed the children had been gone from home for two years and that their parents had sought help from the local government of Davao del Norte to find them.
The national police chief also claimed that "some of the children told [Women and Children Protection Desk] investigators that they underwent some form of warfare training while in the custody of their handlers."
The PNP and red-tagging
The PNP's accusations against activist groups and indigenous peoples' rights advocated are many and well-documented. Most of their claims are posted publicly on their official social media channels despite guidelines supposedly governing their use of Facebook and other channels.
Aside from the police, the military has also raised the alarm over what they claim is communist recruitment in schools. This, despite learning being limited to online and modular modes because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Amihan: This is a blatant violation by the Duterte government of the right of Lumads who have been forced to flee their communities due to intense militarization...Lumad schools have been consistent targets of attacks under the Duterte government @PhilstarNews
— Franco Luna (@francoIuna) February 15, 2021
These moves have also been done amid regular reports of alleged rebels surrendering and abandoning the armed communist movement, which the government has described as weak and irrelevant.
Police and military officials have been on a red-tagging spree in recent years, a practice that human rights groups and the UN Human Rights Office say is both dangerous and has become institutionalized. Some activists and rights workers who had been tagged as communists and terrorists have ended up killed.
READ: PNP chief: We do not authorize red-tagging | PNP 'art' tags activists as terrorists amid debate on anti-terrorism bill
"Brazen acts like these are emboldened by the Anti-Terror Law, which endows state forces greater power, latitude, and impunity. For years now, gaslighting has been the government’s favorite modus operandi. It turns the tables on human rights advocates, framing them as the enemy from which national minorities should be rescued from," Moro and indigenous people's alliance Sandugo said of the police operation on the USC campus.
"This kind of narrative will recur for as long as the government refuses to address the roots of indigenous resistance: their wanton disrespect of human rights, their greed over our ancestral lands, and their inability to recognize our right to self-determination," the group also said.
— with a report from Gaea Katreena Cabico
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