KORONADAL CITY — Children should be spared from protest rallies.
In a strongly worded statement, South Cotabato Governor Daisy Avance Fuentes said the protest rally organizers were putting the children at risk.
“It is clearly a violation of human rights of children and minors,” Fuentes said. “They should be in school and not on streets joining protests on issues that they could hardly understand at this time.”
About 50 militant groups, led by the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) and Kahugpungan sa mga Lumad sa Halayong Habagatang Mindanao (KALUHAMIN) staged protest rallies on Monday in front of the South Cotabato provincial capitol to protest coal mining in Lake Sebu, South Cotabato and the alleged massacre of nine Indigenous Peoples (IPs) at sitio Bonlangon, Barangay Ned, also in Lake Sebu.
Fuentes said while she recognized the rights of every citizen to peacefully assemble and hold peaceful protest rallies, children should be spared. The governor said militant groups could no longer muster adult protesters so they use minors.
“There are criminal liabilities but I do not have to threaten them (that) I will file charges (because) the people know minors are being used,” Fuentes added.
The militant groups accused Fuentes of shutting down 33 IP schools in the province.
“The number is exaggerated,” she said.
Fuentes explained that only one Lumad school in the province, particularly in Barangay Lamafus, Banga town, was ordered closed for two reasons – it was not accredited by the Department of Education and the students were not from the province but from Sultan Kudarat and Sarangani.
Speaking for the protesters, Sonia Eugenio of Bayan SOCCSKSARGEN, said the rally was meant to oppose the coal mining project in the province that they said was anti-poor and would destroy the environment and IPs ancestral lands as well as the series of military operations against IPs in Barangay Ned, Lake Sebu.
She said the governor refused to have the IP children complete education “because she wants the IPs to focus only to T’nalak weaving instead of going to school.”
Fuentes passionately denied the allegations. “That’s unbelievable,” she said.
Lt. Colonel Harold Cabunoc, Army’s 33rd Infantry Battalion commander, denied that the slain IPs in South Cotabato who were communist rebels were massacred. (Edwin Fernandez/PNA/Photo courtesy of Eden Cañete – RMN Koronadal)
