Leader is asked to retract threat to bomb schools
MANILA — Human rights groups asked the Philippine president on Wednesday to retract a threat of air strikes against tribal schools he accused of teaching students to become communist rebels, warning that such attacks would constitute war crimes.
U.S.-based Human Rights Watch said international humanitarian law “prohibits attacks on schools and other civilian structures unless they are being used for military purposes,” adding that deliberate attacks on civilians, including students and teachers, “is also a war crime.”
Left-wing Rep. Emmi de Jesus of the Gabriela Women’s Party asked Duterte to retract the threat, saying government troops may use it as a pretext to attack indigenous, or Lumad, schools and communities in the country’s south which have come under threat from pro-military militias in recent years.
Angered by recent communist rebel attacks on government forces, including a gunbattle last week that wounded five members of his elite presidential guards, Duterte has called off peace talks with the Maoist guerrillas and threatened their perceived sympathizers.
In a news conference late Monday after delivering his annual state of the nation address, Duterte condemned the insurgents for destroying bridges and torching schools in the countryside. But he said the rebels were sparing Lumad schools, which he alleged were operating under guerrilla control without government permits.
“Get out of there, I’m telling the Lumads now. I’ll have those bombed, including your structures,” Duterte said. “I will use the armed forces, the Philippine air force. I’ll really have those bombed ... because you are operating illegally and you are teaching the children to rebel against government.”
Carlos Conde of Human Rights Watch said Duterte, by calling for an attack on schools, “is directing the military to commit war crimes.”
Duterte became president last year after campaigning on his extratough approach on crime as a prosecutor and later as mayor of southern Davao city. He has remained popular despite thousands of deaths in his nationwide antidrug crackdown.