Providing free education to Lumads

We, members of the Mindanao-wide Association of Community Educators, recognize that providing free education to Lumads is an imperative too great to be abandoned.

We believe there is no greater lesson to teach our students than the value of truth and accountability. Yet, state agencies such as the Philippine National Police, the Armed Forces of the Philippines, and no less than President Duterte himself however, is justifying the bombing of schools and accusing our volunteer teachers as members of the New People’s Army.

We express grave concern over such statements as these puts our community educators in grave danger. From the latest data of Save our Schools Network, since the May 23, 2017 declaration of Martial Law, there have been 535 cases of attacks against school documented; 58 schools shut down; 10 schools displaced, 30 schools were used by the military as camp or barracks, 19 schools were destroyed and divested, 2,460 students, teachers and parents were victims of forced/fake surrender, 111 cases of trumped up charges and illegal arrest and detention, 2 Lumad students and 8 PTCA members were killed. Additionally, around 97 residents from Bango and Puting Bato, mostly members of the Salugpongan Parents Teachers and Community Association (PTCA) were also forced to surrender and resulting to the dropout of enrolees in the Salugpongan School.

We affirm our commitment to carry on with our duty to teach and instil the love of learning among our lumad scholars in the face of these escalating attacks against lumad schools and against community educators under Martial Law. Amid this climate of fear and persecution, our only weapons are our school supplies, lesson plans, and our deep commitment to provide education as we use it to help develop the indigenous communities we serve.

We believe the ability to read and write could spell the difference for indigenous peoples between obliteration and proliferation. It can be recalled that Salugpungan Ta ‘Ttano Igkanogon Community Learning Center was created to teach the Alphabet and Math to the Manobos of Pantaron Range as they were easily deceived by the technical jargons in the Logging Contract of Alcantara and Sons within their ancestral territories. This same institution was instrumental in crafting the IP Education framework being championed by the Deped.

We believe that the right to education is a basic rights that facilitates access to all other rights including rights to land, life and liberty. Education will play a significant role as the Indigenous peoples can articulate their demands, aspirations and goals as they chart their road towards self-determination free from the influence of other actors especially those that drool over their territories as sits atop rich mineral deposits and are located in prime agricultural lands.

In the midst of the escalating threats against teachers and personnel of Lumad Schools, we, the undersigned Lumad school educators and school administrators once again reiterate our demand to stop the attacks on our schools, educators and communities. Despite that we shall carry on, especially because the task of nurturing the minds of the future leaders of the lumad communities is a task too great to abandon.

We believe that the right to education is a basic rights that facilitates access to all other rights including rights to land, life and liberty.

Development (DSWD). Through these centers the poor can get financial help to lower hospital bills or at times it may be free.

Another of the candidate’s plan is to repeal the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act as suggested by President Rodrigo R. Duterte. We have a hard time fighting crime because those below 15 years old are exempted from arrest. Imagine some of them are couriers for drug distribution to users while others are into petty crimes or sniffing solvents. When caught, they are brought to the DSWD for discipline and rehabilitation.

The dream of the Malasakit Centers is to establish centers all over the country because some poor citizens die without having seen doctors or hospitals because they have no money to pay the charges.

On the public works government programs, city officials of Koronadal City expect the opening of more gowth zones in the coming years with the operations of its P150 million Integrated Transport Terminal Complex. It’s operation is a dynamic process. It is fully functional with 97% of the buildings and related structures already completed. The constructon of the terminal is among the biggest and most modern in Mindanao that started in December 2015 through a loan from the Land Bank. It adopted the “green” concept in terms of architecture and facilities, specially the use of natural ventilation, skylight lighting, and energy efficient LED lights.

The facility would provide adequate green open spaces and the design would ensure the preservation of the land’s existing water bodies and panorama. The usual residential and business districts will stay. Recreational parks and entertainment facilities stay. Schools and other public service facilities are here also.

Zoning properly is a must to ease the movements of the citizens living here. Peace and order must be maintained in using all the facilities.

ASSOCIATION OF COMMUNITY EDUCATORS