On the 33rd anniversary of People Power Revolution, the Save Our Schools (SOS) Network revisited Martial Law under the late President Ferdinand Marcos in a lecture titled “Martial Law Noon at Ngayon: Kwento ng pag-abuso at paglaban.”
“I realized that there is no difference with Martial law before and now. In Marcos’ administration, there were a lot of people who fought against his tyrannical rule that is why he declared martial law. While in Duterte’s administration, he is scared of our [lumad students] voice and resistance, because our school teaches us how to defend our ancestral lands and value our right to self-determination.” said Catherine Dalon, a Grade 10 student from Mindanao Interfaith Services Foundation, Inc.
Because of Martial Law in Mindanao, Lumads were forced to evacuate their community.
Lumad students were also forced to stop their studies in their community schools and continue it in evacuation centers through “bakwit school.”
“The bakwit school is a form of our resistance against the attacks on our schools and our commitment to continue our education. We have long been deprived of education by the state and now that we already have a school that let’s us learn beyond the four walls of our classroom, we will take our classes lightly,” she said.
Today, as part of their History subject, Satur Ocampo, and Bonifacio Ilagan, survivors of Martial Law under Marcos administration visited their class and exchanged experiences.
“For us lumad students, cowering is not the answer to the intensifying threats of the state, we will collectively face the attacks on our community, because we know that our resistance is just, like the Edsa revolution.” she said.
Attack on Lumad Schools
SOS Network cited various human rights violations (HRVs) under Martial Law in Mindanao. They recorded 535 attacks on schools; 111 trumped-up charges against teachers, parents and Lumad leaders; 73 schools forcibly shut down; 11,500 Lumads displaced; 10 extra-judicial killings; and 8,000 Lumad and farmers forcibly paraded as New People’s Army (NPA) surrenders.
According to Geming Alonzo, executive director of Center for Lumad Advocacy, Networking, and Services, Inc. (CLANS), these recorded data of HRVs are “very alarming” especially after Duterte extended Martial law in Mindanao for the third time.
“Duterte maintains that the extension of Martial law in Mindanao is the solution and keeps on disregarding our call to lift Martial law. This only shows how he never listened and is not interested to resolve the issues that lumad communities are facing,” said Alonzo.
She also added that regardless Duterte’s “lack of response” about the issues that the Lumads are facing, they are determined to “rattle the state to take action and make the perpetrators accountable.”
The post Lumad bakwit school learns history from martial law survivors appeared first on Manila Today.