House leader calls for relief of cops involved in raid on Lumad school
MANILA, Philippines — A House leader called on Philippine National Police chief Gen. Debold Sinas to relieve police officers involved in the raid on a makeshift Lumad school at the Talamban campus of the University of San Carlos in Cebu City which resulted in 25 people being taken into police custody.
“I appeal this to save the very institution of the PNP,” Deputy Speaker Mikee Romero (1-PACMAN party-list), who slammed the raid as “illegal” and marred by “lapses” on the part of the police.
“There is something remiss in the so-called rescue operation,” he said. “The subject incident led to distress, agony and even trauma to the children.”
Romero called on the House to condemn and investigate the incident. The Makabayan bloc has earlier filed a resolution calling on the chamber to do the same.
Police and social welfare officials stormed Monday the university’s retreat house in what authorities called a “rescue operation.”
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 six 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.
The Society of the Divine Word Philippines Southern Province and the University of San Carlos also said in a joint statement that there was no need to rescue the children, as they have been “nurtured, cared for, and treated with their best interest in mind.”
Sinas, however, claimed the children who were taken from the school were being trained to become “future armed combatants,” a claim belied by the Cebu City Department of Social Welfare Services which said that the children turned over to them did not mention anything about being trained to be child warriors.
This incident involving Lumads is far from isolated as the PNP has a well-documented history of red-tagging activist groups and indigenous peoples’ rights advocates.
Government officials, including no less than President Rodrigo Duterte himself, have repeatedly hurled unsubstantiated claims of groups and individuals being part of the communist rebellion, which human rights groups and the UN Human Rights Office say is dangerous as some activists and rights workers who have been red-tagged have been killed.
— Xave Gregorio with reports from Franco Luna
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