MANILA, Philippines (Updated 1:30 p.m.) — International human rights collectives expressed concern over the raid on a Lumad bakwit school in Cebu by personnel of the national police in the guise of a raid, pointing out discrepancies between the police narrative and that of the school itself.
To recall, 19 minors were taken away in the operation on Monday morning, along with two teachers and two elders. Police insisted that the raid was actually a "rescue operation," though it is yet unclear what they were being rescued from, as the teachers did not seem to be armed nor holding the children against their will, as shown in the videos of the operation.
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Emerlynne Gil, Amnesty International’s deputy research director for the East, Southeast Asia and Pacific region said that the rights group had observed that since the enactment of the controversial Anti-Terror Law, attacks against Indigenous peoples, including arrests and killings, have intensified.
"Under the Duterte administration, we have seen an increase of allegations by the military that these Lumad groups are ‘terrorists’. The reality is these communities have been caught for years in armed clashes between the military and armed groups," Gil said in her statement.
"Lumad children have always been victimized and have been forced to flee their communities because of violence. Their schools have been shut down. President Duterte himself said clearly that he will bomb the Lumad communities, including the children’s schools."
Even the University of San Carlos, a private institution which housed the delegation of Lumad students, dismissed police claims that the children were being held captive and trained as "future armed combatants," as no less than Police Gen. Debold Sinas, the chief of the PNP, himself claimed. The university administration also said it was "surprised" at the raid, and it is unclear if police coordinated with the school before entering its campus.
Social workers with the Cebu City local government also told Philstar.com earlier that none of the Lumad students mentioned "warfare training" in their interviews. Instead, they said they were taught reading and writing by their teachers. No illegal weaponry or paraphernalia was found at the retreat house they were arrested in.
Yet according to the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers, kidnapping and serious illegal detention complaints have been filed against the seven arrested without warrant at the operation, which includes teachers and Lumad elders. One of those detained is Chad Booc, who is also one of the petitioners against the anti-terror law being deliberated by the Supreme Court.
That Lumad schools engage in child recruitment for communist rebels is a narrative oft-parroted by the national police and the military. The allegation has never been proven, though, but has many times been acted upon, to far-reaching consequences for Lumad children.
"This police raid is just the latest in a string of violent incidents targeting Indigenous communities and their schools in recent years. Indigenous groups accuse the government of driving tribal people from their communities to facilitate the entry of mining and other extractive industries into their ancestral lands," Carlos Conde, a senior researcher at the New York-based Human Rights Watch Asia division, said in a separate statement.
"Military operations in the Philippines often occur in these areas, resulting in horrific abuses. Tribal leaders have also been frequently targeted in politically motivated killings," he also said.
According to the Save our Schools network, as many as 178 tribal schools around the country have been closed since 2016, forcing affected children to seek education in cities like Manila and Cebu. The network facilitates these children’s education through so-called “Bakwit (evacuee) schools” such as the one in Cebu City.
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.
"Philippine authorities should stop harassing Indigenous peoples with baseless allegations. They should release those wrongfully arrested in the raid and ensure the children are reunited with their families," Conde said in his statement.
At a press briefing later Thursday, the Palace distanced itself from the raid.
"We'll leave that to our policemen. Let them do their investigation. That's in the hands of the courts and the authorities," presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said.
President Rodrigo Duterte has, in the past, accused the Lumad schools of allegedly indoctrinating students in socialism.
At a news conference in 2017, he went so far as to threaten to bomb such schools, saying: "Get out of there, I'm telling the Lumads now. I'll have those bombed, including your structures. I will use the armed forces, the Philippine Air Force. I'll really have those bombed ... because you are operating illegally and you are teaching the children to rebel against government." — with a report from Gaea Katreena Cabico and The Freeman