Casilao: Lumad students have rights to join protest actions
The decision of Lumad students to join protest actions is well within their rights especially that the military has shut down some of their schools and continue to militarize their areas, Anakpawis Rep. Ariel Casilao said on Tuesday.
“Unang-una, ang presensya ng mga kabataang Lumad na kalahok sa peasant month and indigenous peoples month annual celebration culminating activity sa Davao ay pagpahayag ng kanilang constitutionally guaranteed right to peaceful assembly, redress of grievances to government,” Casilao said in a statement.
Earlier in the day, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio criticized Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT-Teachers) Rep. Antonio Tinio and Casilao for allegedly encouraging young students to join rallies.
READ: Sara Duterte hits ACT-Teachers, Anakpawis for luring students to rallies
But Casilao said the students were there to air their concerns and decry the militarization in their areas, adding that they were accompanied by their parents, advisers, teachers, and community leaders.
“Pangalawa, nagpoprotesta po ang mga kabataang Lumad dahil ang mga Lumad schools nila ay pwersahang pinagsasara ng mga militar, ang mga alternative community educators ay binabansagang mga NPA (New People’s Army) schools, militarized, bombed or encamped by soldiers,” he said.
The progressive lawmaker said that if Duterte-Carpio would only seriously look into the complaints of these children and organizations, then “she will know how valid, legitimate the concerns of these groups.”
Tinio, meanwhile, lambasted Duterte-Carpio for “conveniently forgetting” that the principal reason why Lumad children are not in school is because her father, President Rodrigo Duterte, has “threatened to bomb Lumad schools and ordered unrelenting military offensives against them.”
In a press conference after his second State of the Nation Address on July 24, 2017, Duterte threatened to bomb Lumad schools he accused of “operating illegally and teaching subversion and communism.”
READ: NGO hits Duterte over threats against lumad schools
READ: Duterte clarifies he will destroy Lumad schools, not children
The lawmaker also noted that since the declaration of martial law in Mindanao in May 2017, there have been 535 documented cases of attacks against these schools; 58 schools have shut down; 10 schools displaced; 30 schools were used as barracks by the military; and 19 schools were destroyed.
“This onslaught against the privately-run schools — the only providers of education in the remote Lumad communities— has deprived thousands of children of their right to go to school,” Tinio said.
Duterte-Carpio earlier asked the lower chamber to expel members of the progressive House Makabayan bloc after the Davao chapter of ACT Teachers party-list revealed that her city does not give local allowances to its teachers. /muf
READ: Sara Duterte calls teacher’s union in Davao terrorists, liars
