(UPDATED, with latest details) Various groups under Save Our Schools (SOS) Network Cebu are calling for the immediate release of 26 Lumads or indigenous people (IP) from Davao del Norte who they claim were “illegally seized” by police authorities in an SVD-owned retreat house at the University of San Carlos-Talamban campus (USC-TC) on Monday, Feb. 15, 2021.
The SOS Network Cebu, composed of church-based groups, academic institutions, militant organizations, and members of civil society said while disguised as a rescue operation to save indigenous children allegedly held in the USC campus without their parents’ consent, the police operation was nothing but a “raid” and an “illegal seizure” of the “Lumad 26.”
Fr. Rogelio Bag-ao, provincial superior of the SVD Philippines Southern Province who manages the retreat house inside the USC-TC, denied the children were at the Bakwit School without parental consent.
In a press conference, Bag-ao said the children even had video calls with their parents and he, himself, followed up with the students.
The National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL), in a statement, also said written authorizations were provided by parents of the Lumad students to join the bakwit schools.
The NUPL said no coordination was made nor any document presented by law enforcement authorities to retreat house administrators before the police operation was conducted.
“The violent manner of taking custody over the Lumads despite the presence of social workers and a specialized PNP unit catering to women and children’s needs may have caused distress and trauma to them, especially since the majority of the persons taken were minors,” the group said.
NUPL spokesman King Anthony Perez said the lawyers’ group visited the office of the PNP Anti-Kidnapping Group Visayas Field Unit on Tuesday, Feb. 16, to determine the conditions of the teachers and Manobo tribe elders.
Perez said NUPL had yet to decide on what case to file against those involved in the operation as they have not yet secured the police report and received the official complaint against their clients.
Police authorities and members of the social welfare department swooped down on the retreat house after six parents of Lumad minors sought the assistance of the Municipal Social Welfare and Services in Talaingod, Davao del Norte, about their missing children.
A total of 26 Lumads composed of 22 students, two teachers and two elders or datus were taken under police custody as a result of the operation.