Briones: Spare kids, schools from clashes

Leonor Briones

ANGELES CITY—Education Secretary Leonor Briones has appealed to the Islamic State-linked Maute and Abu Sayyaf groups to spare children and schools in the ongoing clashes between government forces and terrorist groups in Marawi City.

“Children should not be part of this conflict,” Briones said in a speech at the program commemorating the 119th Independence Day here.

She described the ongoing hostilities as a “threat to our unity.”

“The Department of Education (DepEd) contributes to the normalization [of life] by opening schools to children,” she said, adding that 2,000 displaced students had enrolled in Iligan City while 1,000 others had transferred to Cagayan de Oro City, Cebu City and in northern and Central Luzon.

She said around 17,000 of at least 20,000 school children in Marawi City had not yet enrolled since schools opened on June 5.

Child among dead

A child was among eight people found dead near the Mindanao State University campus in Marawi last month, according to a report quoting Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla, spokesperson for the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

Mindanao personnel of the DepEd are also seeking to protect children from discrimination and bullying in transit to evacuation centers or during their stay in halfway homes, Briones said.

“Children are innocent. They are Filipinos and they have the right to be educated,” she said.

Peace zones

She said the military had not yet allowed DepEd personnel to enter Marawi City to assess how many public and private schools had been destroyed or damaged.

The city has 87 public and 45 private schools, DepEd records showed.

According to Briones, rebuilding schools in the city “would not be a problem” because the DepEd has a “huge budget.”

The Army’s engineering brigade would also be mobilized for the task, she said.

“Schools are zones of peace,” she said. —TONETTE OREJAS