BY RAYMUND B. VILLANUEVA A paramilitary group destroyed an indigenous people’s school in Bukidnon Province last Wednesday, August 26, the Save Our Schools (SOS) Network reported. The Mindanao Interfaith Services Foundation Inc. (MISFI) Academy in Sitio Laburon, Brgy. Matupe, San Fernando was attacked and destroyed by around 50 members of paramilitary group ‘Bagani’, the network…
Despite a long record of human rights violations committed by paramilitary groups, many of them remain active and under the command of the AFP up to this day.
“The fact says it all. They mingled with the crowd while armed and they gave the police false names when they were presented at the police station.”
“It must be the will of God that your schools continue to serve as we see new teachers volunteering.”
Parents and children walk for hours to attend their ‘moving up ceremony’ which was delayed by accusations of the military and paramilitary groups that the school is supposedly run by communist rebels. The school denied it.
“We denounce the arming of the Lumad people against their own kin, making them pawns against the government’s fight against insurgency.”
By INA ALLECO SILVERIO
“The government remains blind to everything except the money that it gets from the mining firms – but this money is tainted with our blood; and no amount of money can ever compensate for the loss of our slain tribal leaders who fought for our rights to our own lands.”