THE government, thru the Regional Police Office 7, rescued 19 minors from the indigenous communities in Mindanao and taken, without parental consent, to a seminary in Cebu City by ‘teachers’ from a school earlier shut down by the Department of Education (DepEd) after establishing it to be another front organization established by the Communist Party of the Philippines.
At a press conference right after the operation, PRO-7 regional director, P/BGen. Ronnie Montejo, said the operation was conducted in the morning of February 15, 2021, after 6 Ata Manobo parents from Talaingod, Davao del Norte, accompanied by Talaingod social welfare officers and their tribal leaders, sought the help of police authorities in Cebu in rescuing their children inside the San Carlos University Retreat House in Talamban, Cebu province.
The parents claimed their children were taken away from them around 2018 by members of the ‘Salugpungan Ta’ Tanu Igkanogon Community Learning Center.’
The religious retreat house is being run by the Societas Verbi Divini (SVD), which also operates the San Carlos University.
Montejo said 7 adults who subsequently brought the minors to the retreat house on their arrival in Cebu in late 2019, were also arrested to face charges for kidnapping, serious illegal detention, violation of the human trafficking act and exploitation of minors and children.
A subsequent police report identified those arrested as: Benito Bay-Ao, 54, Segundo Melong, 55, and, Moddie Langayed Mansumoy, 20, all from Talaingod, Davao del Norte; Esmelita Paumba Torebawan, 19, from Sitio Bonipong, Bgy. White Gulaman, Bukidnon;
Chad Ramirez Booc, 27, from Sector 7, San Roque St., Bgy. Pagsabungan, Mandaue City, Cebu; Jomar Manliquez Binag- 21, from Poblacion, Compostela Valley, Davao De Oro; and, Roshelle Mae Porcadilla, 21, from Doroluman Arakan, North Cotabato.
Booc and Porcadilla claimed they are ‘teachers’ of Salugpungan, of which, all 55 of them were ordered closed by the Department of Education (DepEd) in October 2019 for failing to comply with government regulations and standards. The education department had also confirmed that Salugpungan ‘teachers’ have no license to teach nor are they qualified as such.
The schools also operate inside tribal lands without the consent and agreement of tribal elders and leaders while taking its students away from their homes without parental consent.
National security adviser, Hermogenes Esperon, based on the result of previous military operations, also accused the Salugpungan (an Ata Manobo word that means ‘unity), of being used by the CPP in radicalizing the IP youths and recruit them subsequently for its armed struggle against the government.
Significantly, Booc was established to have previously travelled to the Netherlands where he had his picture taken with CPP founder, Jose Maria Sison.
Of those rescued, the updated information obtained by Pinoy Exposé also disclosed that 13 of them came from Talaingod, 1 from Zamboanga and 5 from Sultan Kudarat.
Of these, 4 were already 18 years old above while the rest ranged between 14 to 17 years old.
No DepEd knowledge, approval
A day after the rescue—which was described as a ‘Gestapo-like abduction’— by Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Zarate— the Department of Educatioon (DepEd) Region 7 confirmed that the so-called ‘Bakwit School Program’ and its “modular learning initiative” and “blended learning classes” operated by the San Carlos University in partnership with the ‘Save Our Schools’ (SOS) network, is without the knowledge and approval of DepEd.
Zarate is accused by the military as among the members of Congress under the ‘Makabayan Bloc’ who are actually secret ranking members of the CPP. Similarly, the SOS network is also among the many front organizations secretly being run by the communists, the government further alleged.
Salustiano Jimenez, DepEd regional director, confirmed the department was also kept fully in the dark by SCU officials as to the presence in the campus, since 2019, of the rescued students.
“We will find out in the Learners Information System (LIS) of DepEd if the names of those IP students are listed.
“If we can’t find their names in the LIS and they have no assigned learner’s reference numbers (LRN), then they are considered as illegally enrolled,” Jimenez said, in a report filed by the Philippine News Agency last February 16, 2021.
Jimenez further bared that SCU officials “has not provided” the DepEd any information about the presence of these IP youths from Mindanao
The Lumad Bakwit School’s move to bring the IP children to Cebu for education does not pass the criteria of a student exchange program because the children are just hopping from one province to another in the country, Jimenez further explained.
The department, the official added, is now set to investigate “if other private institutions in Cebu are also accepting IP children from Mindanao for modular-type of studies.”
“To our parents, we have to be very careful and to validate the record of the school before we allow our kids to be enrolled kay lisod na ang panahon (with the current situation now).
“If we care for our children. It’s not only the pandemic that we should worry about, but also a crisis like this that affects our children,” he said.
Jimenez also stressed that despite completing their curriculum under this bogus system and the students’ personal achievements, these would all be for nothing.
The education department, he said, will never recognize the achievements of the children even if they would graduate from institutions that have not secured state clearance (additional reports credited to Phil. News Agency).