Suffer the (Lumad) Children

Children in the tribal communities of Mindanao are bearing the brunt of the Arroyo regime’s anti-Lumad policies, according to Lumad advocacy groups.

By May Vargas

DAVAO CITY — The suicide of 11-year-old Mariannet Amper has turned civil society’s attention on children’s rights. Indeed, the public clamor for the basic rights of a child is never emphatically stated as it is today.

Mariannet’s fate has moved many to ponder deeply at the plight of the present generation of Filipino children. As a victim of extreme poverty and depression wrought by a society that has clearly no strong support mechanism and welfare system to address the fundamental rights of children, civil society groups are asking, “What of other children living similarly destitute lives?”

In Perspective: the Plight of Lumad Children

The Solidarity Action Group for Indigenous Peoples (SAGIP,) a group which gives direct service to indigenous peoples communities, noted the alarming situation of children, particularly of those in the countryside, which include a big number of lumads or indigenous peoples.

Professor Myfel Paluga, SAGIP chairperson and an anthropology professor in the University of the Philippines Mindanao, cited the deplorably neglected lumad and peasant children who “like Mariannet,” wish for school bags, shoes, toys, food and a happy home which at the minimum, should at least have some food on the dining table.

Paluga cited the case of the Ata-Manobo children in Talaingod, Davao Del Norte. Numbering to about 200, from ages six to 15, they trudge on the hilly slopes for two to three hours daily, rain or shine, in order to get to community schools where they hope to learn how to read and write.

“Founded through the joint efforts of SAGIP and the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines, 10 community schools in Talaingod catering to lumad children do not get any support from the government, but instead survive through donations of schools, foundations and concerned individuals,” Paluga said.

Paluga said the situation of the rural poor, who are greater in population, “belies the Arroyo government’s boasted economic growth.”

Meanwhile, IPHR Watch Mindanao (Indigenous Peoples Human Rights Watch) raised concern on the human rights situation of lumad children.

IPHR Watch Mindanao received reports on the documented killing of three lumad minors — Raf-raf Jose, 7; Kevin Dongiapon, 6; and Marickel Donato, 13 — in Sitio Nursery, Barangay Binondo, Baganga, Davao Oriental on August 18, 2002 when the 8th Special forces Battalion strafed the houses of the victims during a military operation.

In the investigation that human rights group Karapatan conducted, 80 bullets were found on the walls of the hut where Mariquiel Jose died. In the investigation report, Major Alexis Gopico, chief of the Army’s 8 th Special Forces Battalion who headed the said operations was quoted saying, “the slain children might have been the children of NPA guerillas.”