Education Department suspends 55 schools for indigenous people that allegedly teach students to rebel against gov’t

The Philippines’ Department of Education (DepEd) has ordered the temporary shutdown of 55 schools for lumad (indigenous) children located in the Davao region for allegedly teaching students left-leaning ideologies.

The suspension was announced on Friday via an order signed by Evelyn Fetalvero, regional director for DepEd Region 11. She was instructed to order the suspension by DepEd Secretary Leonor Briones, reported CNN Philippines. 

All of the schools are operated by the non-profit organization Salugpongan Ta’ Tanu Igkanogon Community Learning Center Inc., which established its first schools in Bukidnon province to give indigenous peoples access to education. The organization said it would appeal the DepEd’s decision, reported The Philippine Daily Inquirer.

Briones’ instruction to close down the schools was based on a report submitted by National Security Adviser Secretary Hermogenes Esperon, chairperson of the Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict. The report said that the lessons taught in the schools were “not in accordance with the guidelines set forth by DepEd,” reported the Inquirer. 

It alleged that the schools would bring students to anti-government protests and that children were taught to criticize and rebel against the government.

Esperon’s report was based on a testimony by a certain Melvin Mansaloan who claimed to be a Salugpongan volunteer teacher. He alleged that the schools taught children songs of the New People’s Army, the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines. He also alleged that the schools staged student plays which depicted the abuse committed by government soldiers, such as the alleged torture of children and rape of women civilians.

President Rodrigo Duterte has sharply criticized lumad schools, once even during his State of the Nation Address in July 2017. He vowed that he would instruct the Armed Forces of the Philippines to bomb the schools because they allegedly teach children to rebel against the government, reported Rappler. 

The DepEd said that the students of the suspended schools will be enrolled in nearby public schools, reported Rappler. 

Meanwhile, Salugpongan said in a statement that the DepEd’s move marginalizes the lumad, reported MindaNews. The group also said that they will challenge Esperon’s accusations and accused him of using “fabricated accusations and red-tagging to justify the closure of lumad schools.”

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