Ex-Salugpongan learners get makeshift classroom

A MAKESHIFT classroom has been built for former pupils of the controversial Salugpongan Ta’ Tanu Igkanogon Community Learning Center, Inc. (STICLCI) in a far-flung area in this city, an official said.

Col. Nolasco Mempin, commander of the Army’s 3rd Infantry Brigade, said the classroom in Paquibato District was completed last Tuesday to cater to the elementary pupils of the STICLCI-run school in the area that was among the 55 tribal schools suspended by the Department of Education (DepEd).

DepEd-Region 11 suspended the operations of STICLCI schools in the region following allegations of the school system’s ties with the communist rebel movement.

Mempin said the temporary classroom was funded by DepEd and its partners to “bridge the education needs of the 51 primary pupils in Sitio Gatungon, Barangay Tapak, Paquibato District.”

“This temporary school donated by some of our partner stakeholders like UBI (Ulticon Builders Inc.), Peace 911 and DepEd will surely address the lack of classrooms in far-flung areas,” he said.

He said the classroom also eased the pupils’ burden of walking for hours to go to the nearest DepEd school in the area.

STICLCI’s operations were suspended on July 12 after National Security Adviser Secretary Hermogenes Esperon accused the school system of promoting the “violent” ideology of the New People’s Army (NPA), the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).

Based on the testimonies of former students and teachers, Esperon alleged that STICLCI-run schools were being used as training and recruitment centers for the NPA.

The NPA-CPP has been listed as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the Philippines.

“The CPP-NPA-NDF targets the communities for their exploitation and recruitment in their extremism and struggles to topple existing and change it with their Marxist-Leninist-Maoist socialism form of government through the Salugpongan schools,” Mempin said. He was referring to the National Democratic Front, the political arm of the CPP-NPA.

DepEd has earlier said that learners of schools that do not have permits or have not been accredited or recognized by the government could not proceed to the next higher grade level.