A 19-year-old indigenous student died after he was shot, allegedly by a member of a state-sanctioned civilian militia, in the province of Davao del Norte, on Tuesday.
According to a report in Rappler, the grade 6 student was shot by a member of the Citizen Armed Force Geographical Unit (CAFGU). According to a report by Save Our Schools (SOS), Obillo Bay-ao was a student of the Salugpongan Community Learning Center in Talaingod town, Davao del Norte.
According to SOS, 3,721 indigenous peoples have been displaced due to military operations in Mindanao.
Last July, after the State of the Nation Address, President Rodrigo Duterte threatened to bomb indigenous schools for teaching them how to rebel against the government.
“Leave. I’m telling those in the Lumad schools now, get out. I’ll bomb you. I’ll include your structures,” he was quoted in CNN Philippines.
Bay-ao is the latest teenager killed by state agents, although this incident is unrelated to drugs.
Last month, 17-year-old Kian delos Santos was shot in the back during an anti-drug operation. Nineteen-year-old college student Carl Angelo Arnaiz was also killed by police who accused him of robbing a taxi driver. Today 14-year-old Reynaldo de Guzman, Arnaiz’s companion on the day he went missing, was found dead in Nueva Ecija.
