THE Department of Education (DepEd)-Davao suspended the permit to operate and recognition of all Salugpungan Ta’tanu Igkanugon Community-owned and operated schools.
The order was signed last Wednesday, July 10, but it was only publicized Saturday morning, July 13.
DepEd issued the suspension order after reviewing the reports from National Security Adviser Secretary Hermogenes Esperon, Jr. and the vice chair of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict, that Salugpongan has been using students in rallies and teaching them ideologies against the government.
The department said Esperon attached in his report an affidavit executed by Melvin Mansaloon Loyod on December 6, 2018, among others.
Loyod, together with others, volunteered to be a teacher of Salugpongan, and was assigned to one of its schools at Sitio Pongpong in Barangay Sto. Niño, Talaingod, Davao del Norte.
The volunteer teacher said the learning modules they taught students included the following: how to conduct rally against the government; learn the song of the New People’s Army (NPA); make drama about Lumad being tortured; Lumad women are raped; how to use firearms; ambush of military soldiers; clearing the body of dead soldiers; how to withdraw during encounters, confrontations and harassments; how to convince the chidren to stay with them or to fight the Government; and other actions to destroy the government.
“Those are serious enough to warrant an immediate action from the Deped since those acts go against the established mandate of DepEd to ensure that teaching in our schools are consistent with our curriculum standards, and certainly not contrary to the constitution and laws,” DepEd said, adding that Salugpongan violated the Republic Act No. 10533, and DepEd Order No. 31, series of 2012. The department also said it may also constitute a violation of Articles 134 to 142 of the Revised Penal Code.
DepEd also said administrative sanctions may be imposed in relation to the abovementioned violations under Section 25 of DepEd Order 21, series of 2014, wherein a revocation of recognition will be issued any time an institution is found to fall short of the minimum requirements or any condition set by the Education Department.
DepEd Davao spokesperson Jenielito Atillo said Salugpongan could still appeal as the order had given them five days, starting Friday, July 12, to respond to the allegations mentioned.
“If within five days, they will not be able to take action, there is a great probability that the Deped Central Office will issue another order which is the revocation from the government authority,” Atillo told Sunstar Davao in a phone interview yesterday.
Meanwhile, Salugpongan has yet to issue an official statement, according to Kabataan party list vice chair for Mindanao Jayvie Cabajes.
Cabajes also said the militant group has also yet to issue their official statement, as of yesterday presstime.
In a previous report, he said the closure of some Salugpongan schools are some of the attrocities of the government since the Martial Law was imposed in Mindanao in 2017.
According to the reports of Save Our Schools Network, an alliance of non-government organizations (NGOs) for lumad students’ right to education, a total of 11,000 displaced students were recorded since the Martial Law implementation while 111 teachers and other school volunteers were filed with charges for alleged involvement in left-leaning activities. These include those from Salugpongan.