The Lumad school on Pantaron Range

The Salugpungan Ta’tanu Igkanugon Learning Center Inc. (STTILCI) in Davao del Norte – a school borne out of the Lumad’s unity to defend their ancestral land – continues to struggle against militarization.

BY DEE AYROSO
Bulatlat.com

MANILA – Teacher Mabel Historia, 22, has a diminutive frame with a slightly hunched back. She has had scoliosis since birth, but her physical condition doesn’t bother nor limit her. The military allegations about her were, however, a bit too much.

“They said I am an NPA (New People’s Army) leader,” Historia smiles, slightly amused. “With my small frame, I can’t even carry heavy loads,” she said.

Historia, a teacher of Salugpungan Ta’tanu Igkanugon Learning Center Inc. (STTILC) is among the target of red-tagging and harassment by the military, that has been calling it “an NPA school.”

The STTILC is located in the hinterland village of Palma Gil, in Talaingod, Davao del Norte. The area is home to the indigenous tribe of the Manobos, one of the Lumad tribes whose ancestral territories are in primary forests of the Pantaron Mountain Range.

On March 3, the combined forces of soldiers of the 68th and 60th infantry battalions of the 1003rd brigade of the Philippine Army and the 4th Special Forces of the Armed Forces of the Philippines began to scour the area, entering the communities and conducting aerial bombings.“They disrupted our school graduation,” recalled Melvin Loyod, 18, and currently in grade 8. He said the program was halted as soldiers began streaming in. On March 20, bombs fell in Palm Gil.

From March to April, the massive military operations forced the Talaingod Manobos to evacuate to Davao City, the second time in 20 years, where they stayed for a month. The soldiers left in late April, but returned in July in sitio Nasilaban. They remain encamped as of this writing.

Historia, Loyod and the 12 other students of the grade 8 class joined the Manilakbayan ng Mindanao to call for the pull-out of the military in the communities. They have been performing and speaking in forums in Manila since mid-November as part of the Save Our Schools (SOS) campaign to gather support to protect schools from militarization.

“Every day, soldiers go to the school. They try to turn the community against the school, to make the people drive the school out,” said Kerlan Fanagel, secretary general of the Confederation of Lumad Organizations in Southern Mindanao (Pasaka), and the STTILC research and curriculum development staff.

‘Salugpungan’

For the Manobos to turn against the school would be to turn against the fruit of their own blood, sweat and tears, for the STTILC is actually borne out of the Lumads’ struggle for their right to self-determination and their territories in Talaingod.

It was built by, and named after the indigenous group Salugpungan Ta’tanu Igkanugon, which means “Unity of People to Defend the Ancestral Land” in Manobo. The group was formed on Nov. 30, 1994, uniting 83 Manobo tribes of Talaingod to defend the ancestral domain against encroachment of the logging company Alcantara and Sons (Alsons).

The group, led by Datu Guibang Apoga, engaged in negotiations with the pro-logging Talaingod local government and the military. But as the militarization and the encroachment by logging and dam companies continued, the datus decided to launch a “pangayaw,” a tribal war to defend the ancestral land.

Apoga and other tribal leaders were forced to go into hiding after government ordered their arrest in 1997, but the Salugpungan continued to unite the Lumad communities, gathering support for their calls.

In 2003, Salugpungan sought the assistance of indigenous peoples’ advocates and the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines to set up STTILC, starting as a literacy-numeracy school for adult Lumads in Palma Gil village.

In 2007, it was accredited by the Department of Education (DepEd) as an alternative learning school, and started teaching preschool to elementary. Its main school is in sitio Dulyan.

Two years ago, it opened a boarding school that is the equivalent of a high school, and follows the K to 12 curriculum. The high school has two branches, one in sitio Nasilaban, Palma Gil, and in sitio Tibucag, Dagohoy village.

Scientific

Historia is the adviser to the Grade 8 class, which was the first batch of STTILC elementary graduates. She describes the school curriculum as “nationalist, mass-oriented and scientific.”

“Our discussions take off from what we see around us,” she said. To start a science lesson on matter, for example, Historia would ask students to each bring an object from the surroundings, and describe the object’s features.

Lessons in Music, Arts, Physical Education and Health (MAPEH) include Lumad culture and tradition.

“The students themselves research about the traditional way of life, customs, and the history of their tribe,” Historia said. She added that the teachers, specially the non-Lumads, learn along with the students.

Historia takes no credit for the polished performance of her 13 students during protests and forums. She said that they hold a cultural presentation every Friday, and students are divided into groups that prepare and present traditional songs and dances. This practice has honed the natural talents of the students, who are encouraged by the tribe to dance even as small children.

Historia said the students also make the scripts and dialogue themselves.

“In Social Studies, we discuss the national situation and issues,” she said. Their textbooks are those published by the thinktank Ibon Foundation.

Before a history lesson, Historia asks the student to prepare a skit based on something they have experienced in the community. It helps them better understand the past by linking it to the present, and vice versa.

Historia said the school would be offering training in agriculture, midwifery and education when students reach grade 12.

The teacher lamented that the school direly lack supplementary educational materials. There is no computer class, nor access to the internet. Although there is one computer in the school, it is rarely used. There is no electricity in the village, and school generator is also scarcely used. The school also has only one microscope.

Dreams and fears

Students Yanyan Salimdim, 17, Divina Pogkot, 16 and Melvin Loyod, 18 – all grade 8 students – all want to be a teacher someday.

“I want to help my tribal brothers and sisters,” said Salimdim, in an interview with Bulatlat.com.

Loyod said very few teachers are willing to work in an interior village like theirs. Pogkot, whose favourite subject is Math, said she wants to continue her studies and take up education in college.

They said their parents cannot read nor write, and had wanted their children to finish school.

The three students consider their boarding school special because they produce their own food. Mondays to Fridays are devoted to regular class work, but Fridays and Saturdays are field work, when they tend to their vegetable gardens. The students grow string beans, eggplants, squash and other vegetables. They also have a nursery where they raise fruit trees like marang and durian.

The produce is enough to feed the total of 40 grade 7 and 8 students in sitio Nasilaban. When it comes to learning the Lumad culture, the three said: “We do what the elders do.”

They observe, and follow the movements of the elders in rituals, such as in giving thanks to the good spirits at the start of the planting season or the harvest festival.

The three students said the presence of soldiers stirs fear among children and students. Pogkot said she worried for her parents and other adults. In 2011, her father Minggoy was accosted and detained by soldiers on his way to the farm.

“They tied him up. They scattered the camote in his sack,” she said. Minggoy was held up by the soldiers from morning until 3 p.m., when he escaped. Pogkot said her family was so worried because he was missing for a whole day, and had not eaten anything.

Loyod said soldiers harassed some grade 7 students.

“The soldiers told them not to study there because it is an NPA school,” said Loyod. Some of the students were so scared they weren’t able to go to class.

Destroyed

Fanagel said when the community returned in May after a month in evacuation, they found the schools ransacked and damaged.

“Everything was destroyed,” he said.

Plates, pots and kitchen utilities were thrown outside the windows. Books and notebooks were scattered. The electrical wirings in the high school in sitio Tibucag, Dagohoy village were all cut. The cables were newly-installed and were supposed to be powered by generator. The sacks of seeds for the students’ garden were hacked, and the spilled seeds were unusable. The ceilings of classrooms were also hacked.

Camote plots and abaca crops were cut down and destroyed to clear a landing pad for helicopters.

Houses were also looted, the residents’ bolos and other items missing.

“When the classes started, we had a hard time,” Fanagel said.

The community had barely recovered when the soldiers returned in July in sitio Nasilaban. The soldiers encamped in the DepEd school, positioned on a hill and just opposite the hill where the STTILC sits. The DepEd school had stopped classes because the teachers had left, said Loyod.

Loyod said the soldiers get themselves drunk then fires in the direction of the boarding school.

The Salugpungan went to Davao city to seek help from the DepEd, which facilitated a dialogue with the military on Nov.6. The soldiers agreed to move out of the DepEd school, but then, the next day, they moved into the community, which is on the vale between the two hills and even closer to the school.

Red tag

“We believe that aside from the school, the real target of the militarization is Pantaron Range,” said Fanagel.

The Pantaron range straddles the Davao region up to North Cotabato and Bukidnon, and is the location of the headwaters of major Mindanao river systems. Its rich biodiversity of flora and fauna, remain well-preserved because of the active defense by the indigenous peoples of their ancestral territories.

Fanagel said his group learned that the national government plans to build a P9 billion ($200 million) mining hi-way that leads up to Pantaron Range. He said that it means that the government is seriously aiming to get its hands on the resources of Pantaron range, thus, the persistent attack on the communities.

Most recently, Loyod said soldiers are going around the community asking people to sign a document belying the statement of Salugpungan spokesperson Datu Duluman Dausay, who said that on Oct. 16, drunken soldiers encamped at the DepEd school fired in the direction of STTILC.

“Those who refuse to sign will be considered an NPA supporter,” said Loyod. Also in October, state security forces arrested Dominiciano Muya, RMP staff and husband of STTILC executive director Lolit Muya, on criminal charges. He is still in detention in Bukidnon.

Fanagel said the military-organized paramilitary group Alamara is also recruiting among Lumads, to divide their ranks. The indigenous peoples mandatory representatives (IPMR) in the local government bodies are being pitted against the progressive indigenous leaders. He cited the October 2014 issue of Raptor, the publication of the 103rd Brigade, which posted a “unified statement” of the IPMR which listed “communists,” including himself, school director Muya, North Cotabato indigenous woman leader Norma Capuyan, a bishop and several Talaingod leaders.

20 years

As the Salugpungan commemorates its 20th founding year on Nov. 30, it declared the renewal of its commitment “to steadfastly defend our culture, our people and our ancestral domain.”

The group also called for the immediate pull-out of military troops in Talaingod communities.

“The militarization of our communities and the attacks on our services, specially our schools bring us closer to the spectre of Talaingod-Manobos being driven from their communities, fragmented and hopeless, more hungry than ever and Talaingod being opened to large-scale mining, the Pantaron being ravaged and the Alcantaras back in power,” said the group in its statement.

“Amidst all the challenges we have proven over two decades that we can rely only on our own strength, to our unity as organization and as people. There is no reason now to stop our fight in seeking our rights and continuing the defense of ancestral domain,” said the Salugpungan statement.

“More than a week has passed since the Manilakbayan contingent arrived in Metro Manila yet BS Aquino chose to remain mum on the demands of the Mindanaoans and has instead, resorted to military attacks in the communities where the Manilakbayan contingent came from,” said Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay.

As the Manilakbayan contingent was on its way to Metro Manila, on-going military operations that included bombings have resulted in the evacuation of indigenous peoples in Bunawan, Agusan del Sur and in three villages in Claveria town, Misamis Oriental.

On November 17, Manilakbayan ng Mindanao reported some 300 indigenous people fled their homes “due to artillery bombardments of their community.”

Earlier, residents of the populated village of Sta. Monica and Sitio Kiatsan, Brgy. Bunawan Brook decided to leave their homes on November 11, the after soldiers freely and arbitrarily fired their guns for several days.

Also in Bayugan, Agusan del Sur brothers Philims and Philip Poloyapoy are still missing since November 1. Their brother Filjohn was found dead on November 3. The three were arrested by elements of the 75th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army (IBPA) while conducting combat operations on November 1 at Purok 13,Bagong Silang, Brgy. Bayugan 3, Rosario, Agusan del Sur.

“BS Aquino is wrong in thinking that he can ignore the cries of the Mindanaons who are in Metro Manila by harassing the people and bombing their communities in Mindanao. Ang mamamayan ang maghuhusga. The Filipino people will ultimately judge him and the crimes of his regime,” Palabay added.

Today is the fifth day since the Manilakbayan, in a ritual, posted kodaw with five knots at the Freedom gate at Mendiola. The kodaw is the Lumad’s way of sending messages. Through it, the Mindanaoans have sent their demands to BS Aquino. The five knots signify the number of days the Manilakbayan contingent gave to Aquino to respond to their call for food and peace, the pull-out of the 55 AFP combat battalions in Mindanao, and an end to Oplan Bayanihan.

“BS Aquino may ignore the five-days in the kudaw but that only bears out his irrelevance to the Filipino people,” ended Palabay.

Reference:
Cristina “Tinay” Palabay
Secretary General
+63917-3162831

Angge Santos
Media Liaison
+63918-9790580

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PUBLIC INFORMATION DESK
publicinfo@karapatan.org
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As women activists the world over commemorate the International Day for Women Human Rights Defenders today, November 29, women’s rights group Tanggol Bayi today scored the BS Aquino administration as “a threat to the lives and rights of Filipinas, especially on the extent of rights violations against women human rights defenders in the Philippines.”

Kiri Dalena, convenor of Tanggol Bayi, said the “continuing attacks on women human rights defenders in the country are evident in the killing of development worker Engr. Fidela Salvador, frustrated killing of Nermie Lapatis and in the illegal arrest and detention of Andrea Rosal and Maria Miradel Torres who were both pregnant at the time of their arrests.”

Engr. Salvador, 50 years old and a mother of three children, was a consultant of the Cordillera Disaster Response and Development Services Inc. (CorDisRDS) and the Center for Development Programs in the Cordillera (CDPC).  She was on a monitoring visit for various socio-economic projects implemented by CorDiSRDS and CDPC in Lacub, Abra when she was killed by the Armed Forces of the Philippines in their operations in September 2014.

On September 6, Engr. Salvador’s body along with the dead body of another civilian, Lacub resident Noel Viste, was airlifted by the AFP from their Bantugo military camp in Lacub to the Barbarit, Lagangilang, military camp. The autopsy report conducted by the National Bureau of Investigation indicated that she suffered from 9 gunshot wounds, multiple contusions and lacerations and a head injury caused by a blunt object.

Andrea Rosal, a peasant organizer and land rights activist, was arrested together with companion Edward Lanzanas on March 27, 2014 by elements of the NBI and the military for trumped up charges of kidnapping with murder.  Rosal was seven months pregnant during the arrest. Rosal, daughter of communist spokesperson Ka Roger Rosal, lost her first child two days after giving birth in May this year. The inhumane conditions in jail contributed to the death of her baby. She is still detained for the said trumped up charges.

Torres, a member of Gabriela in Mauban, Quezon, was four-months pregnant when she was illegally arrested on June 20, 2014 in Lucena by joint elements of the AFP and the police based on trumped up charges of murder and frustrated murder.  Prior to her arrest, Torres, who was then four-months pregnant, was confined at a hospital in Quezon province from June 11 to 18 due to profuse bleeding. While at the TCJ-FD, Torres was brought to Taguig Hospital due to continuous heavy bleeding. She was hospitalized from July 3 to August 11. She recently gave birth to a baby boy.

Indigenous people’s leader and anti-mining activist Nermie Lapatis of the Kahugpungan sa mga Mag-uuma (Kasama) in Vintar, Valencia, Bukidnon, survived an attempt on her life in February 5, 2014. She was shot in the knee, while her companion and fellow peasant leader, Julieto Lauron, had been killed instantly, after they were shot at by still unidentified assailants. Lapatis had been previously harassed by paramilitary group New Indigenous People’s Army for Reform (NIPAR) and the 8thInfantry Battalion Philippine Army.

Human rights group Karapatan reported 21 women victims of extrajudicial killings under the Aquino administration, and 43 women political prisoners.

Aquino government did not comply with Beijing declaration on women’s rights

Cristina Palabay, co-convenor of Tanggol Bayi, said that the “Philippine government is an absolute failure in implementing international human rights standards on women’s rights, including the Beijing Declaration and Platform of Action (BPfA),” which was adopted on September 15, 1995 in Beijing, China. The said declaration contains specific commitments pertaining to the respect, promotion and protection of women’s rights in situations of armed conflict. A review of States’ commitments to the BPfA is slated on March 2015 at the session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women in New York, twenty years after the landmark declaration was signed.

“Since 1995, the continuing and escalating attacks by state security forces against women human rights defenders in the Philippines, especially those who are active in promoting the right of peasants and indigenous peoples, are propped up by the climate of impunity, the non-rendering of justice and accountability, that engenders further violations against Filipino women and the people in general,” Palabay averred.

She also particularly scored the increased military fund appropriations and spending of the Philippine government and the US military aid to the Philippines to fund counter-insurgency programs that result to gross violations of women’s rights.

Despite the enactment of domestic laws criminalizing violence against women and children, trafficking, rape and the Magna Carta of Women, Palabay said “the situation of increased poverty, landlessness, joblessness, gender-based violence, and suppression of rights by state security forces have worsened women’s lives.”

“The Philippines is a notorious example of a state that uses the gender and human rights cards to appear to look good before the UN and in the international community. The government may have signed on to all international treaties on women’s rights and human rights, and it may have all the laws on this regard, but on the ground, the situation gives a different story,” she concluded.

References:
Krista “Kiri” Dalena
Convenor, Tanggol Bayi
+639295373010, +639209755574

Cristina “Tinay” Palabay
co-convenor, Tanggol Bayi
+63917-3162831
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KARAPATAN Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights

http://www.karapatan.org/Karapatan+scores+use+of++force+vs+Manilakbayan+rallyists

They have come to tell their stories on how the Armed Forces of the Philippines sow terror in their communities. On the third day of the Manilakbayan contingent in Metro Manila, they already experienced how the Philippine National Police used force to drive them away and to protect the US Embassy.

On November 24, the Manilakbayan contingent with hundred others from Southern Tagalog marched from Baclaran Church to US Embassy. The mostly peasants, indigenous peoples and Moro delegates from Mindanao condemned the continued and increasing presence of US troops in the country. However, the police hit them with rattan truncheons that hurt the protesters. Joseph Alicabo, a worker from the Toyota Motors Philippines was hit on the head and was wounded.

Mindanao has been hosting Balikatan military exercises since the Visiting Forces Agreement was approved in 1999. Cristina Palabay, Karapatan secretary general cited several cases of human rights violations that Karapatan documented since then. Among them were the killing of Buyong-buyong Isnijal in 2002 and the “mysterious” death of Gregan Cardeño in 2010.

“The incident at the US Embassy may be minor compared to the massive militarization of peasant and indigenous people’s communities in Mindanao. But it showed the Manilakbayan contingent that anywhere in the country, those who avow to serve and protect the Filipino people are actually protecting the interests of the US government; that the BS Aquino government does not give an inch to protesters and is always ready to  use of force against them,” Palabay said.

More than half of the AFP’s total armed strength is currently deployed in Mindanao. “There are at least 55 battalions sowing terror in Mindanao, displacing peasants and indigenous peoples, encamped in Lumad schools, harassing, and even killing the people,” she added.

The Manilakbayan contingent is set to hold a protest action at the Department of National Defense tomorrow, November 26 to call the public’s attention to the abuses and rights violations of BS Aquino’s AFP. Already there are 83 documented cases of extrajudicial killings, 500 activists facing trumped up criminal charges, and 39 incidents of forcible evacuation.

Yesterday, after the march to the US Embassy, the Manilakbayan and Southern Tagalog contingent with other Metro Manila-based people’s organizations, held a rally at Mendiola. Lumad rituals to show their condemnation of the BS Aquino regime and to strengthen people’s unity were conducted. Lumad leaders also made ‘kudaw’ a strand of rattan with five knots to signify the number of days they are giving BS Aquino to heed the demands of the people of Mindanao. November 29 is BS Aquino’s deadline.

The Manilakbayan ng Mindanao contingent will be in Manila until December 10, where they will join in the commemoration of the International Day of Human Rights.

Reference:
Cristina “Tinay” Palabay
Secretary General
+63917-3162831

Angge Santos
Media Liaison
+63918-9790580

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PUBLIC INFORMATION DESK
publicinfo@karapatan.org
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Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights
2nd Flr. Erythrina Building
#1 Maaralin corner Matatag Streets
Central District, Diliman
Quezon City, PHILIPPINES 1101
Telefax: (+63 2) 4354146
Web: http://www.karapatan.org

KARAPATAN is an alliance of human rights organizations and programs, human rights desks and committees of people’s organizations, and individual advocates committed to the defense and promotion of people’s rights and civil liberties.  It monitors and documents cases of human rights violations, assists and defends victims and conducts education, training and campaign. 

Candles lit for Hacienda Luisita martyrs, all victims of trade union repression

“Ten years on since the Hacienda Luisita massacre, the Aquino presidency has no indication that it will end the bloody land monopoly of his clan and slave wages for the farmworkers. It’s totally outrageous that the President’s family expects Filipino farmworkers and their families to survive on PhP9.50/day (less than 0.30 NZ$) and silence them with bullets when they assert their long-running demand for genuine land reform.”

Thus was the statement of NZ-based human rights advocacy group as New Zealand trade union and human rights activists gathered on Friday 14th November to mark the International Day of Action against Trade Union Repression, to show solidarity with all workers asserting their rights to form unions to fight for just wages, job security and humane working conditions.

Members of Auckland Philippines Solidarity (APS), FIRST Union and Unite Union lit candles after watching the documentary video on one of the worst attacks against workers’ right to freedom of association: Ten years ago, on November 16, 2004, the military and police forces opened fire on striking sugar workers of the 6,453-hectare Hacienda Luisita owned by one of the Philippines’ biggest landlords – the president’s Aquino-Cojuangco clan.

President Benigno Aquino III was the manager of Hacienda Luisita and member of Congress at the time of the massacre.

“We lit candles to reiterate demand for justice for the seven martyrs of the November 16, 2004 tragedy and the scores of union leaders and supporters brutally killed in the following months. How many more lives of poor peasants and farmworkers will be taken before the President’s family heed the numerous court orders following massive strikes and solidarity actions demanding just distribution of the land in Hacienda Luisita,” APS asked.

“We dare Pres. Aquino and his family members to try living on PhP9.50/day like the thousands of families of the striking sugar workers who remain denied of justice and dignity of hard labour up to this day,” APS concluded.