DepEd averts closure of ‘lumad’ school

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY—The Department of Education (DepEd) has stopped a village chief from closing a small “lumad” (indigenous) school in Kitaotao, Bukidnon province, for its supposed ties with communist rebels and threat to the community, reminding him that he has no such power.

Felipe Cabugnason, chair of Barangay White Kulaman in Kitaotao, did not carry out his threat to shutter Fr. Fausto Tentorio Memorial School after a DepEd official in Malaybalay City called his attention, said Evelyn Cabangal, a mathematics and sciences teacher of the school.

The school, named after a Catholic priest killed in Arakan, North Cotabato province, in 2011, is being run by Mindanao Interfaith Services Foundation Inc. based in Davao City. Currently, it has 55 students in Grades 7 and 8, and three teachers who all live in a campus dormitory.

Cabugnason has accused the school of keeping links with the New People’s Army and ordered it to voluntarily close on Oct. 1 within two days or be forcibly shut by barangay officials. Military operations against suspected rebels are ongoing in areas near the school, about an hour’s hike from Poblacion Kitaotao.

In a text message, Cabangal said some of its students, who are children of lumad farmers and Bisaya and Ilongo settlers, had not returned after going home for the weekend.

She said the teachers were informed by the DepEd in Malaybalay that one of its division officials would be coming to inspect the school. Inquirer Mindanao