In Targeting Lumad School, Arroyo Regime Sees Red Again

In Targeting Lumad School, Arroyo Regime Sees Red Again

By BENJIE OLIVEROS

MANILA — The Arroyo government and the Armed Forces of the Philippines are seeing red again. This time, they are attacking, of all places, schools that serve Lumad communities.

Long neglected by the government, the Lumad communities in Surigao del Sur under their organization Mapasu (Malahutayong Pakigbisog Alang sa Sumusunod, or Persevere in the Struggle for the Next Generation), with the assistance of the Diocese of Tandag and the NGO Sildap established their own school in the 1990s. Called the Tribal Filipino Program of Surigao del Sur (TRIFPSS), the nonformal learning center for Lumads, which is equivalent to an elementary school with levels 1 to 6, was able to establish eight branches. It is recognized by the Department of Education (DepEd) and won the department’s National Literacy Awards twice, placing first earlier and third in 2006.

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