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OPINION
F E B R UA RY 2 6 , 2 02 1 | U P L B P E R S P EC T I V E .O R G
Let our schools be zones of peace N O F U RY SO LO U D By Kennlee M. Orola
Lumad communities had been heavily displaced far from their ancestral lands for quite some time already. Most of them moved to cities or nearby communities. Some took refuge inside universities, away from all the harassments and abuses of armed men. However, recently, another Lumad school found itself raided by the PNP where 26 teachers, students, and Lumad leaders were put in jail. All of this happened under the veil of a ârescue operationâ inside a university in Cebu. Schools should have been a zone of peace, but peace is a privilege if you are living under a tyrannical regime. This is especially true for a lot of Lumad schools that were closed by the Department of Education and ransacked by armed forces. We have seen 178 schools shut down since 2016 and the number continues to rise. What bothers me more is the number of harassments inflicted upon the Lumad communities. According to Save Our Schools (SOS) Network, there are about 584 cases of attacks, which includes extrajudicial killings and sexual harassment on top of human rights violations. The AFP-PNP is also actively red-tagging these schools, claiming that they are breeding grounds of New Peopleâs Army (NPA) revolutionaries without any solid evidence to show. I still remember the art exhibit in Diliman that featured the artworks of young Lumad. They featured burning trees, soldiers pointing guns to them, chaos, and blood, among others. I can only imagine the trauma that these children had to go through and battle every
[P] PHOTO BY ISABEL PANGILINAN
day. So there is no surprise if some of them will pursue a path of armed struggle. Who will save you if the people who ought to protect you are the ones killing you? In a recent interview, the chief of police Deblod Sinas said that some of the children confessed that they are being groomed as combatants and are indoctrinated as communist rebels. Contrary to this statement a social welfare in Cebu DSWD said that the children
mentioned nothing about being indoctrinated. The children unanimously testified that they are only being taught to read and write and are all well taken care of inside the perimeter of the school. It is really painful to hear the cries of men, women, and children from a video taken in a mobile phone in that said rescue operation. One thing is for sure, it is unclear who they are rescuing these children from. One by one,
Lumad schools are being shut down. More lost opportunities for these children to learn and more dreams are deferred if not broken. I can not stop thinking, who are these uniformed men and women serving for? Because clearly, in that video, they are not serving the poor and the underprivileged. They operate almost like a private militia following blind orders from men sitting on leather swivel chairs. Sadly, the displacement of Lumad communities are not isolated cases. More indigenous communities face the same predicaments of defending their ancestral lands from government forces and private companies. The Dumagat in Southern Tagalog are threatened to lose their ancestral domain in light of the creation of the Kaliwa dam. Aetas of Tarlac were displaced in exchange of the New Clark City and Mangyans of Mindoro were forced to vacate the mountains because the AFP continues to bomb their villages. I can only imagine the amount of violence these people have seen in their lifetime and that would not stop me from fighting for the lives of my fellow Filipinos. I whole-heartedly condemn this act of violence from PNP. The PNP should be serving in the interest of the masses and should not act as if they are above the law and the lives of the Filipino people. Schools should have been an environment to nurture minds to think critically. It has no place for violence nor force. So please hands off our youth and keep out of our schools! âââ The UPLB Perspective is accepting opinion articles that touch on relevant issues concerning news, politics, culture, and personal experiences. Send your articles or queries to opinion.uplbperspective@ gmail.com
Where the grass is greener MUMBLINGS By Gerard Laydia [Trigger warning: Mention of suicide]
It shouldnât be that hard; trying to thrive in academics all the while working to stabilize your familyâs financial situation, rebuilding hardearned homes devastated by the past typhoons, coping with everyday problems stifling your mental health condition, and the like - but the thing is, it is hard. I learned and relearned this as schools nationwide transitioned towards remote learning as a safety measure against COVID-19, and with it came the loss of friends and acquaintances. On the onset of a new semester, students are yet again made to prepare for another battle of learning in the online setup. Undeniably, the semester has become very challenging for most of us, if not all, as we were forced to adjust to a new scheme of learning and not all of us had the resources and the resolve to attend classes conducting synchronous sessions to genuinely learn. Our national government has proven time and time again its incompetence, all the while sacrificing Filipinos for it. None of these would have happened if our government officials were
focused on doing measures on more pressing matters, such as allocating amounts for the pandemic response, the improvement of our healthcare and educational systems, as well as narrowing down the digital divide. It is true that technology is becoming indispensable in everyday life, especially today where most classes are being conducted online. This does not consider the needs of the underprivileged. Families that go a day with barely any sustenance is still a painful reality, especially in the rural areas. The situation is so severe, that when the new academic year began, there was even a reported 9% decline in enrollment around 2.3 million students. The government must address this, including the stagnation of our rural communities in terms of technology use. More efforts should be put into making the internet accessible for all. Even as someone from the greener side of the field, it was still very hard for me to buckle down and finish all the modules of my courses in the previous semester. Without a doubt, it was a very tedious and eye-straining experience, for I have spent the past five months in front of my personal desktop computer, burning the candle at both ends, while being unsure if I have learned anything at all. The previous semester became a poor estimation
of our academic performances. In the midst of conducting remote mode of classes while battling the COVID-19 pandemic, typhoons have ravaged homes of some students. Hence, forcing most of the professors to resolve to end the semester and give minimal requirements to the students. However, the requirements given to us in our classes, whether minimal or not, would not suffice as a proper basis of the studentsâ academic performance. Many have thrived and almost gained flat uno general averages, but there is still the other side of the spectrum we need to consider: learners living below or within the poverty line, ailed with unstable mental health conditions, and have little to no access to technology. They would surely do a great job too, if only they are supported with sufficient resources and means to learn while being in a conducive learning environment. A friend would be a testament to this. I would see him in our residence hall with stacked books almost covering up his face. He studied really hard and smart in hopes of becoming an engineer. However, life canât just go the way we want it to go. Perhaps due to the burden of his personal problems, he chose to make a turn no one couldâve predicted heâd choose - suicide, leaving friends and family heartbroken.
Months after his passing, another isko was reported to have chosen the same route while the semester is drawing near its end. Two lives have been lost during a semester, and they are only a part of the proportion of students choosing to end their lives. Some may have even been juggling work and academics, stifled with mental health, and equipped with little to no means for learning and burdened with academic workload. It shouldnât be that hard, and thatâs the point, it shouldnât be. And unless we address this, we will painstakingly continue learning and relearning losses, among which are the loss of friends and acquaintances in a literal sense. To students in more straitened circumstances, bear in mind that there is always a light at the end of the tunnel. If you happen to come this far, I would like to commend you for surviving, and you deserve a pat on the back. Saying this a guy from where the grass is greener. âââ Itâs okay to not to be okay. If you are in need of mental support and assistance, contact National Center for Mental Health: 09178998727 (mobile), 02-7-989-8727 (landline), 155 (toll free, landline to landline); Suicide hotline: 804 4673(HOPE); or the Office of Counseling and Guidance, OVCSA, UPLB Tel. No.: (049) 536-7255 FB: facebook.com/ ocgovcsa.
