4ID: bombing schools not in our vocabulary

An official of the Army’s 4th Infantry Division (4ID) on Thursday, July 27, said the military did not take literally the threat of President Rodrigo Duterte to bomb lumad schools as the statement was meant to be understood with a different context.

Captain Joe Patrick Martinez, 4ID spokesperson, said it has never been a policy of the military to bomb and destroy schools for indigenous peoples (IPs) even those which supposedly operate without permits from the Department of Education (DepEd).

Martinez said the `bomb’ that Duterte is saying is the approach that the government forces must take to change and align the system of education in these lumad schools to the government’s education framework.

Martinez said it is also an approach that entails social pressure and social awareness which the Deped has a role to play in convincing theses IP schools to be accredited by Deped so that students can proceed to higher education.

“Yung statement ni President sa amin is not interpreted in that manner na literal na bombahan. It was exaggerated sa anger, deception and lies ng kabila,”Martinez said.

“Maraming cases na di makapag-enrol sa higher education ang mga bata dahil sa di accredit ng Deped at di nila ito maintindihan kaya dyan nagsisimula ang galit sa gobyerno. Ito yung pinagkait ng mga nagtatag ng schools na ito in the guise na nakakatulong daw sila,”Martinez added.

Martinez said that lumad school’s faculty and staff are the ones depriving the students to pursue higher education.

Martinez said former members of the communist movement have alleged that subversive ideas and the communist ideology were taught to children in these unaccredited lumad schools.

“Di makakatulong sa mga kabataan na makita ang mga matatandang may hawak na baril kasi akala nila tama. Wag nating turuan ang mga batang lumaking voilente at may galit sa gobyerno,”Martinez said.

“Hiling natin sa mga schools na ito na magpa-accredit sa Deped at makipagtulungan sa gobyerno nang sagayon di natin manakawan ng pangarap ang ating mga kabataan,”Martinez added.

Martinez said once these schools are finally accredited by the Deped, he assured that the military troops will address the presence of armed group operating near the IP schools.

Meanwhile, Duterte yesterday clarified that he has no plans of killing the Lumad children when he said he would bomb their schools.

Speaking to reporters after his wake visit to six slain policemen in Guihulngan City, Negros Oriental, the President insisted that he merely warned to burn indigenous schools because the facilities were operating without Department of Education’s permit.

“I did not say that I’ll bomb that while there are people inside. That’s why I said `Leave, I will destroy that because you are using school without a license from the Department of Education,’ Here in the Philippines, there’s a law. Before you open a school, you have to have a necessary clearances and everything from government,” Duterte said in a chance interview.

“I did not say I’ll kill the children. Far from it actually. I will free the children from perdition because they will learn that from you,” he added.

Duterte made the clarification after his pronouncement after his State of the Nation Address on Monday that he would order the police and the military to bomb the schools of the indigenous peoples.

The Chief Executive said he issued the warning because Lumad schools are being used to exploit the children, causing them to “hate government and eventually go to war.”

“I will destroy that. You are using the school to destroy the mental attitude, the mental health of the children. They grow up there hating government and going to war. You are perpetrating violence in this country and I have to stop it,” he said.

“I have every reason to stop it because you are producing another generation of haters. Do not fool me. You’re just teaching socialism and killings,” he added.

On Tuesday, President Spokesperson Ernesto Abella said Duterte was merely condemning in the “strongest terms” the persuasion among the Lumad children to join insurgency against the government.

Abella said the President merely wanted to inculcate to the young indigenous people the “right values that instil love of the country and respect for laws.” With a report from SunStar Philippines