Four Lumad students look up to their batchmates who receive their certificates of recognition. Beyond the joy of receiving awards in school, the celebration also highlights the triumph of continuing their alternative education despite militarization in their homeland. (Photo by Enrico Berdos)
Story by Enrico Berdos
The efforts made by Lumad students camping in Metro Manila for about eight months has finally borne fruit, as 30 of them officially completed junior high school education at the University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman, Friday.
Established on August 2018, the Bakwit School in UP Diliman serves as a form of protest against the forced closure of 85 Lumad schools in Mindanao and the killing of indigenous people, according to Save Our Schools (SOS) Network. The first Bakwit school in Mindanao, meanwhile, started at evacuation camps in 2015 when Lumad communities were displaced due to the 6.7-magnitude earthquake in Surigao del Norte.
Grade 10 Representative Catherine Dalon said in her speech during the first moving-up ceremony that she and her batchmates may have progressed another year in high school, but they will still continue to fight for their right to education amid experiencing threats, harassment and heightened militarization in Mindanao.
“Hindi lamang mawawalan ng saysay ang pakikibaka ng aming mga magulang at mga ninuno kung hihinto kami, mawawalan rin ng kinabukasan ang susunod sa amin (If we stop, not only would our parents’ and ancestors’ fight [for education rights and ancestral lands] be put to waste, the next generation would also lose their future),” Dalon said.
She asserted that studying in school and participating in mass movements do not contradict each other.
“Magkakaroon lang ng saysay ang ating pinag-aralan kung ito’y makakatulong sa pagpapanday natin sa isang malayang lipunan na nakabatay sa katarungan (Our education will only have our purpose if it leads to shaping a free society based on justice),” she said.
Jennyrose Hayahay, a volunteer teacher from Mindanao, hopes that their students would use their educational attainment to love and serve their own communities.
“Yung feeling na sila, nakapagtapos, paano ‘yung mga katribo nila. Parang magiging teacher ako o doktor para makatulong sa komunidad (For the students, the feeling that they have finished another year of education motivates them to think, ‘I want to be a teacher or a doctor to help my community),” she said.
Hayahay also said that their students remain curious to learn new things, despite limited facilities and the threat of militarization in their schools.
Ongoing Threat
Around 3,000 Lumads have been displaced by the militarization since 2015, which is further worsened by the imposition of martial law in Mindanao.
Intensified militarization has also cost the lives of Lumad leaders like Emerito Samarca, former executive director of the Alternative Learning Center for Agricultural and Livelihood Development (Alcadev). Paramilitary groups Magahat and Bagani stabbed him and two other civilians to death at a Bakwit school in Barangay Diatagon, Lianga, Surigao del Sur on Sept. 1, 2015.
As more Lumads got killed, arrested and displaced by military troops who falsely claimed that they are members of the militant group New People’s Army (NPA), students from various Lumad communities volunteered to converge in Manila in order to continue their education.
Struggle to survive
To be operational in Metro Manila, the Bakwit school relied on volunteers for finances, supplies and additional teachers. Some of the churches and colleges where Lumad students and volunteer teachers had to seek refuge include the Baclaran Redemptorist Church in Parañaque, the University of Santo Tomas in España, Manila, and the Iglesia Filipina Independiente Church in Kalayaan Avenue, Quezon City.
“Mahirap mag-adjust dito sa lungsod kasi wala nang libre. Hindi ito ‘yung kinagisnan nila [mga estudyante], ‘di kasing-ingay at maraming tao, maraming sasakyan. (It’s hard to adjust to the city because there’s nothing free. [The students] are not used to having a lot of noise, cars, and people),” Hayahay said.
Aside from the need to adjust to a totally different environment, both students and teachers also experienced longing for their loved ones whom they left temporarily in Mindanao.
Overcoming these struggles in Metro Manila for almost eight months, the junior high school students who are scheduled to return to Mindanao “vowed to return to their communities and teach the next generation of indigenous children,” according to Hayahay.
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