ANOTHER school for the indigenous lumad people in Surigao del Sur was torched by alleged security forces over the weekend, the rights group Karapatan said Sunday.
About 155 families from six Manobo communities in Tandag City and Ebuan village in Lanuza fled after their houses and the alternative school Tribal Filipino Program of Surigao del Sur in Maitum were ransacked and burned by men believed to be members of the Army’s 36th Infantry Battalion on Dec. 18, Karapatan said.
The group said the evacuees had taken refuge at a village gym in Maitum.
The 36th infantry battalion has also been implicated in the killing of Datu Bello Sinzo, lumad leader Dionel Campos, and Alcadev executive director Emerito Samarca in Han-ayan, Lianga, Surigao del Sur on Sept. 1.
Meanwhile, in nearby Surigao del Norte, the corpse of a lumad leader of the peasant group Kayapan-Amihan was found half-buried near Tigbawan River in Ferida village in the municipality of Alegria.
Karapatan said the man was later identified as Junrey Sagsag. It said the 29th Infantry Battalion had been using Sagsag as a “guide” against his will in its operations in the hinterlands.
The group claims that the military has been backing the Magahat militia, which it says was responsible for killing Emerito Samarca, the administrator of the award-winning Alternative Learning Center for Agricultural and Livelihood Development.