Do more lumads deserve a UP education? Yes

IT seems that Mindanao’s indigenous peoples or lumads have suddenly burst into the national conversation as a reaction to the statements of the president (https:// news.mb.com.ph/2018/02/02/dutertethreatens-to-replace-protesting-upstudents-with-bright-lumads/ ) reportedly seeking to replace protesting State University students who walk out of classes with bright Mindanao lumads.

While the statement was condemned by some militant groups, warning of more walkouts as they deem it an affront to the rights of students to expression, it was surprisingly supported by many netizens, who believe that indeed, more lumads are deemed worthy to partake of higher education opportunities compared to those “walking out” or dropping out of class.

A good number thus find the reaction of the militants and other detractors lacking, perhaps even hackneyed as it limited itself on protecting the protest rights of the Metro Manila-based students rather than the struggle of the lumad, or indigenous Mindanao peoples struggle (and indeed everyone else’s) for decent lives which includes opportunities for higher education.

This issue also raises awareness on the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act, which gives full tuition subsidy for students in State Universities and Colleges (SUCs), local universities and colleges, and staterun technical-vocational schools. This enables free tuition in all the 112 state colleges and universities for all students and courses, including medicine. This is acknoweldged to be one of the major changes shaking up our education system.

Moreover, contrary to the image projected by certain quarters, the Department of Education (DepEd) has programs for IP education for the 1.2 million IP learners enrolled in public schools, as well learners enrolled in community and civil society organization-run schools.

DepEd is also currently facilitating the permits of about 200 schools established by private proponents and civil society groups for lumads, stressing on upholding their culture, while allowing learners to obtain higher education.

These specific programs on education for lumads also come amid the backdrop of the President’s announcement of 1260 million for long awaited programs that will have a positive impact on Indigenous Peoples, covering education and other assistance that targets the development of the ancestral domains.

Many netizens wondered if these student protesters will not “walkout” against free college tuition or current expanded programs for the lumads. Was their response a calibrated one meant to avoid discussing the larger benefits of recent reforms?

To add, a friend opines that this angry response was meant to downplay the assistance and frame the discussion to put the militants yet again at the “forefront” of the issue, in a bid to try and regain a dwindling political base among the lumads.

Whether they are right or not is for you to judge.

To be fair, lumads have always had a complicated relationship with Manilabased militants, and the national government, reflecting a long standing tension between the Manila-based leadership of many progressive organizations and their regional counterparts and a mistrust of government agencies.

Both often stand accused of paying lip service to their plight yet doing little to lower the high poverty numbers that reflect their reality more striking than than protest banners and effigies.

For one, as literacy rates lower than the general population, higher education opportunities are made more difficult by financial and geographic barriers that impose a lot of effort and cost on lumad families to send their children to school.

Of the 31 state higher learning institutions in Mindanao for example, many are located near urban areas making costs prohibitive for their families. Moreover, conflict situations persists in many of the hinterlands, further weakening access to school.

Thus, we hope that the announced assistance and expanded government efforts will not only provide an avenue for deeper discussion of lumad realities, but give flesh to programs that alleviate real concerns – far beyond ideology and slogans.

Many lumad communities have suffered enough due to poverty and conflict. They deserve the best that government can offer in order to cut chronic poverty once and for all.

The question of having more of them enter universities hopefully encourages us to cut through the ideology and politics, and talk more openly about their plight and the push the fulfillment of programs that will help them achieve a better quality of life that they, as we, all deserve.

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