SALUGPONGAN CONTROVERSY. National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. shows to the media the report detailing the alleged links of Salugpongan schools to the communist rebel movement during an interview with Davao City reporters on Wednesday. (Photo by Che Palicte)
DAVAO CITY--A tribal leader has described the controversial Salugpongan Ta’ Tanu Igkanogon Community Learning Center Inc. (STTICLCI) as a national security threat, even as he called on the Department of Education (DepEd) to fully shut down the schools.
In an interview on Saturday, Datu Joel Unad, chairman of the Mindanao Indigenous Peoples Council of Elders, said DepEd should issue a closure order against the Salugpongan school system for propagating the "ideology" behind the communist rebellion in the country.
Unad made the call following DepEd's order last week to temporarily suspend the operation of 55 Salugpongan schools in Region 11.
Unad expressed concern that STTICLCI's teachings in its tribal schools have "poisoned the minds of our schoolchildren," even as he voiced support to allegations that Salugpongan is linked with the New People's Army (NPA).
In suspending Salugpongan's permit to operate, DepEd-Region 11 cited the 2018 findings released by National Security Adviser Secretary Hermogenes Esperon Jr. detailing the alleged connections of Salungpongan schools to the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines.
Unad said Esperon's findings were credible as they relied on the testimonies of Salugpongan's former students and teachers, who alleged that the STTICLCI-run schools are being used as training and recruitment ground for the NPA.
"There is an urgency for closure (of the Salugpongan schools), and we are happy that they (DepEd) have answered our plea,” the tribal leader said.
“Right before the suspension order of DepEd, we already submitted a report to National Security Adviser Secretary Hermogenes Esperon Jr.," Unad said, adding that as tribal leaders, they have been aware for some time about Salugpongan's teachings.
Unad said that based on the testimonies of the parents and community members, Salungpongan learners in their areas were trained to use firearms and on offensive tactics against military detachments.
Unad said that initially, they welcomed the mission of Salugpongan schools to provide education for the Indigenous Peoples' children in far-flung areas.
Their expectations, he said, were soon proven wrong.
"The parents who longed for their child’s development realized this cannot be attained because they (Salugpongan schools) teach students how to revolt against the government,” Unad said.
Aside from allegedly indoctrinating IP children on the ideologies of the communist rebel movement, Unad said STTICLCI failed to obtain Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) before putting up the schools.
“The basic requirements needed may have been DepEd were complied, but the FPIC requirement was not submitted to us,” he said.
In a separate interview Saturday, Jong Monzon, secretary-general of Pasaka Confederation of Lumad Organizations in Southern Mindanao, denied the accusations of Unad regarding STTICLCI's FPIC compliance.
Monzon said Salugpongan schools in Davao Region have complied with the entire requirement needed for its operations.
“These schools have operated for about 12 years and their accusations are malicious and baseless. We hope that DepEd will allow the schools to continue its operations because they are destroying the future of our Lumad children,” he said.
Monzon also disputed Unad's claim about the supposed links of Salugpongan schools to the NPA, saying this was instigated by the military.
Meanwhile, STTICLCI executive director Maria Eugenia Nolasco appealed to Secretary Leonor Briones to look at Salugpongan schools as "partners."
In a statement sent on Friday afternoon, Nolasco reminded that Salugpongan and DepEd have once agreed to work for the education of tribal students in the countryside.
“We appeal that DepEd shuns the accusations made by the report of National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon that serves basis of the suspension of our schools,” Nolasco said.
Esperon’s accusations, she said, were "fabricated and far-fetched, and will not even hold water in court."
“We hope that DepEd makes its decisions based on discernible facts that refute the fiction of the military,” she said. (PNA)
