Rights groups, activists and academic institutions have condemned Philippine authorities following a raid targeting Indigenous Lumad students who sought shelter at a Catholic university after being forced from their homes because of fighting between the military and communist rebels.
Monday’s roundup, which the government insisted was a “rescue operation”, is seen as part of President Rodrigo Duterte’s new war against the communists, who have been waging an armed rebellion for half a century.
The Duterte administration recently declared the communists a “terrorist” organisation, after talks with the group collapsed. Since then, it has also accused mainstream left-leaning political parties, workers groups and even academics of acting as “fronts” for the communist rebels – a government campaign that has become known as “red-tagging”. Critics accuse the president of using “communism” as an excuse to crack down on any groups who oppose his administration’s p
Progressive groups denounced the arrest of lumad elders and other individuals in a “rescue” operation of government forces inside the Talamban campus of the University of San Carlos in Cebu City on Monday, Feb. 15.
19 Lumad children rescued from alleged kidnapping by militant group PNP
enablePagination: false (FILE PHOTO)
Cebu (CNN Philippines, February 15) Police have arrested seven people in an operation in a top Cebu school on Monday, where they said 19 Lumad children from Davao del Norte were rescued from alleged kidnapping by a militant group.
According to authorities, parents claimed their children were taken by members of the Salugpungan Ta Tanu Igkanogon without their consent and were told they would be brought to Davao City for their schooling. They were instead found to have been staying at a retreat house of the University of San Carlos-Talamban Campus in Cebu since 2018, police said.
(Photo courtesy of Save Our Schools Network)
In a joint statement, Save Our Schools Network (SOSN) and Sabokahan Unity of Lumad Women said that, since July 2020, the lumad, Moro, and other national minority individuals and organizations have been filing petitions to question the constitutionality of the anti-terror law.
The groups added that the anti-terror law targets indigenous peoples and their advocates, citing the arrest of two Aeta evacuees Japer Gurung and Junior Ramos, who were both falsely charged with “terrorism” in November 2020.
Arms and explosives were allegedly seized from Gurung and Ramos.
“Since the implementation of anti-terror law, we have seen heightened attacks against individuals, organizations, and schools that are committed to empowering Lumad youth to defend their ancestral lands. It is the government’s association between ‘terrorism’ and environmental and education advocacy that forces us to fear for our students’ and fellow teachers’ secu
No safe space for Philippines’ Indigenous youth as military allowed on campus
by Mongabay.com on 22 January 2021
The Philippines’ Department of National Defense has unilaterally terminated an accord that ensured the 17 campuses of the University of the Philippines were off-limits to the military and police.
The defense secretary justified the move by alleging that insurgents from the banned communist party and its armed wing are using the campuses’ sanctuary status as cover for their recruitment and propaganda purposes.
The decision has alarmed displaced Indigenous students who are harboring at UP’s Quezon City campus after the military bombed or took over their schools in a counter-insurgency campaign that began in 2018.