A VILLAGE chief in Kitaotao, Bukidnon is threatening to close a lumad school for its supposed links to New People’s Army (NPA) rebels.
Evelyn Cabangal, a Math and Science teacher of the Fr. Fausto Tentorio Memorial School in Barangay White Kulaman in Kitaotao town, Bukidnon, said school officials received on Thursday morning, October 1, a "memorandum order" signed by barangay chief Felipe Cabugnason, directing the school to voluntarily shut down within two days or be forcibly closed by village officials.
The school, run by the Mindanao Interfaith Services Foundation Inc. (MISFI), is named after the Italian Roman Catholic priest gunned down inside his parish compound in Arakan town, North Cotabato in October 2011.
Cabangal said the village chief wants the school shuttered for its supposed lack of a permit to operate and for being a "threat" to the safety of the community because of supposed links to the NPA.
Cabangal said Cabugnason also accused them of not paying for the lumber used in the school’s construction.
She said Cabugnason warned that “failure to comply... with the said memorandum order within the timeframe given” would lead to the barangay council “together with the people in our barangay” going to “where the school is located and we will automatically close the school.”
The memorandum dated October 1, 2015 is addressed to Percinita G. Sanchez, MISFI executive director with offices at Indangan, Buhangin, Davao City.
But Cabangal said she was surprised with the village chief’s order saying Cabugnason was even one of the signatories when they applied for accreditation with the Department of Education (DepEd) last year.
Cabangal said the school has completed all the necessary documentation necessary for a permit from the DepEd and has submitted these to the DepEd regional office in Cagayan de Oro City.
She said they began operating following a request from a local farmer’s group, Naghiusang Mag-uuma sa Barangay White Kulaman, to put up a school as the nearest high school is ‘too far away.’
An hour’s hike from Kitaotao, the MISFI school has 55 grades 7 and 8 students, all of whom go to school without having to pay for tuition and other expenses.
The school is also a "boarding high school", Cabangal said, and the students,with the school’s three teachers, all live in living quarters within the school complex.
Majority of the students are lumad and children of indigent Bisaya and Ilonggo settlers, Cabangal said.
But Cabangal said a number of their student have dropped out of school because of ongoing military operations.
“We now only have 42 students,” she said.
Barangay White Kulaman, Kitaotao, is the same village where about 200 helicopter-borne police and Army troopers arrested 13 persons in a supposed law enforcement operation last August 26.
All have since been released after a court dropped charges of rebellion against them.
Iglesia Filipina Independiente (IFI) priest Christopher Ablon, Karapatan Northern Mindanao Region secretary general, decried the village chief’s closure order, saying branding the school as "a school of the NPA" can lead to justification to harass the teachers and students.
“This is highly susceptible to further violence, harassment, and the violations of human rights,” Ablon, in a text message, said.
“We call on Kitaotao Mayor Lorenzo Gawilan and the Sangguniang Bayan to act on the matter as we fear for the safety of the students and teachers,” Ablon said.
Meanwhile, a military spokesperson said operations against NPA rebels are continuing in the said barangay.
“Mismo ang mga residente kasi ang ayaw na huminto tayo sa operations dahil sa takot, may mga reports din kasi na may mga NPA rebels pa rin doon,” Captain Joe Patrick Martinez, spokesperson of the 4th Infantry Division, said.
“Mas grabe nga yung takot nila ngayon dahil sa pag-release ng 13 suspected rebels na kinasuhan natin,” Martinez said.
“Mandate din kasi sa amin to protect the people. Ang kapitan ng White Culaman at mayor mismo ng Kitaotao ang nag-request ng military presence doon,” Martinez said.
“Ang dahilan kung bakit kaunti nalang ang mga schooldchildren dahil nga natatakot sila sa mga rebelde,” he said. (With PJ Orias)