THE military on Friday refused to follow President Rodrigo Duterte’s order to “bomb” the schools being attended by the lumad, the tribal minorities of Mindanao.
Armed Forces spokesman Restituto Padilla said Duterte was simply “communicating a tough stance” after he threatened to bomb the indigenous peoples’ schools that were allegedly flouting government regulations.
“It was just a matter of strongly communicating a strong position on behalf of government to warn this illegal educational centers who are not complying with government regulation,” Padilla told reporters.
“[It’s] not intended to really destroy the community but to extend a message, a very strong message, to the people behind the organization of this illegal learning institutions to comply with government regulations.”
Padilla said the President’s threat was merely a strong style of messaging to emphasize his disdain for schools that “brainwash” children into hating the government.
“So whatever step will be asked from the Armed Forces, we will do it but not in this manner,” Padilla said.
Education Secretary Leonor Briones likewise tried to deflect criticism from her department after it kept mum on the issue for days.
“As a general principle we do not favor bombing, but he [Duterte] did not say he would bomb the children but told them to get out,” Briones told dzRH radio.
On Thursday night, Duterte clarified the remarks he made after his second State of the Nation Address, saying while he would continue bombing the “rebel” schools for the lumad he did not intend to kill lumad students.
He likewise stressed that those schools,which he did not identify, were not registered with the Department of Education and were just being used to “poison the minds” of children “who grow up hating the government.”
Following clarifications from the Education department, Communications Assistant Secretary Ana Maria Paz Banaag claimed that there were “three main groups of left-oriented lumad schools that still had not complied with the department’s regulation.”
Among those named by the department were the Alternative Learning Center for Agriculture and Livelihood Development Inc. or Alcadev, the Center for Lumad Advocacy and Services Inc. or CLANS and the Salugpungan Community Learning Center.
The department claims that Alcadev “has no permit to operate and refuses to get a permit from the Department of Education while CLANS “has been given three months to comply with the department’s requirements.”
