THE regional director of the National Commission on Indigenous People (NCIP) in Caraga region, Atty. Marlon Bosantog, chided a priest at the Univesity of San Carlos- Talamban Campus to “show proof” that school officials were given the opportunity to let the IP students rescued by the police last February 15, 2021, to talk to their parents in Talaingod, Davao del Norte, thru video call.
Bosantog said that Fr. Rogelio Bag-ao, superior of the Society of Divine Word Missionaries, (SVD) “has lied in his statement released to Cebu media on Monday (right after the police rescue operation) claiming he had constant communication with the IP children’s parents through social media.”
Bosantog dared the priest to show copies of any video call or any recording that would prove the conversations between the parents in Davao del Norter and their children in Cebu.
“Wala namang signal sa bundok (There is no signal in the mountain). At this point, alam natin sinong nagsisinungaling (we know now who is lying). They are just trying to avoid responsibility,” Bosantog said in a virtual presser.
Bag-ao and the rest of the officials of SCU are now under intense pressure to explain the presence of the students, some of them just 14 years old, in their campus since March 2020.
The police swooped down on the Talumban campus after six parents of the students filed a complaint against their children’s ‘recruiters’ who were also all arrested by the police.
Bag-ao is the manager of the retreat house where the IP children were rescued, and seven Salugpungan teachers were arrested.
Bosantog said appropriate cases, including but not limited to kidnapping, serious illegal detention, and child abuse will be filed against the seven teachers
The government, Bosantog added, will look into the “complicity of the university” and possible violations to the rights of the IP children that are penalized under the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA).
Lorua Sambeyang, one of the six parents who came to Cebu through the help of the Municipal Social Welfare Office of Talaingod, told the media that many of them do not have mobile phones and do not even know how to operate gadgets.
The Ata Manobo parents said they were made to sign a paper when their children were taken from them but they did not even understand its content.
Sambeyang added that no one from the police nor any government agency forced them to go to Cebu to seek help in locating and rescuing their children.