HRW urges Philippine authorities to stop harassing IPs after Cebu City police raid
Published February 18, 2021 10:28am Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Thursday urged Philippine authorities to stop harassing indigenous peoples with baseless allegations as it denounced the recent police raid in a temporary school for displaced indigenous peoples in Cebu City. In a statement, HRW researcher Carlos H. Conde called on authorities to release those wrongfully arrested in the raid and ensure the children are reunited with their families. The Philippine National Police (PNP) said the 19 minors belonging to the Manobo tribe were rescued from communist rebels in a retreat house at the University of San Carlos.
Senator Nancy Binay on Thursday urged the Philippine National Police (PNP) to go after syndicates that are behind the manufacture and sale of fake COVID-19 vaccines, instead of focusing on perceived threats.
On Monday, police in the central Philippine city of Cebu raided a temporary school for displaced Indigenous children and detained 26 people, including 19 children.
(JUAN CARLOS VELA / MANILA BULLETIN)
Brig. Gen. Ildrebrandi Usana, spokesman of the Philippine National Police (PNP), said those charged were presented for Inquest proceedings before the Provincial Prosecutor’s Office of Davao del Norte at the Hall of Justice, Capitol Site, Mankilam, Tagum City via video conference.
Those charged were two officials (datu) of the Manobo tribe, two teachers and three adult Lumad students, one of them was Chad Booc, a Computer Science of University of the Philippines- Diliman who graduated cum laude but chose to be a volunteer teacher for lumad students.
Among the charges slapped against them were violation of Article 267 of the Revised Penal Code (Kidnapping with Serious Illegal Detention), violation of Section 10 of the Republic Ac 7610 and Violation of Sections 4i, 4j, 4k and Section 9 of RA 9208 as amended by RA 10364 (Human Trafficking).
By PROF. HENRY FRANCIS B. ESPIRITU
I strongly and vehemently denounce the attack made yesterday by the police (under the dubious pretext of “rescue operation”) against Lumad volunteer teachers and Lumad students who were sheltered in the University of San Carlos (USC), Talamban Campus. Last year, I had the privilege of volunteering as Philosophy teacher for one month (January thru February 2020) to Lumad Junior and Senior High School students who visited UP Cebu under the Lumad Bakwit Program. During our classes, I listened to their stories of military cruelty and learned from them how they were repressed by the oppressive State apparatus in collusion with big mining firms that are out to expropriate and exploit their ancestral lands for these big companies’ greedy and selfish purposes.