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Red-tagging
FOR SOME, the President’s post-SONA press conference was more interesting if not disturbing. One of the things he told the press candidly on Monday night was this:
“’Yung mga eskwelahan lang ng mga Lumad (in Mindanao), they are operating without the Department of Education’s permit kasi sa eskwelahan nila they are teaching subversion, communism, lahat na. So umalis kayo dyan, bobombahan ko ‘yan. Isali ko ‘yang mga istruktura ninyo. I will use the Armed Forces, the Philippine Air Force.”
Was the President making an order to continue the military’s branding of innocents and the institutions nurturing them, as rebels? He sounded serious; he was not joking.
The President is accusing Lumad schools of training children to be rebels, when some of them have long been operating with DepEd recognition. Schools of indigenous peoples and community learning centers such as those for the Lumad in Mindanao are established and maintained by people’s organizations and members of the local communities themselves due to the absence of public schools offering free education in their areas. Are they enemies of the state? They are also part of indigenous peoples’ assertion of their right to self-determination.
The presidential pronouncement is more ominous since it comes from the Commander-in-Chief. Of course, the President is known for his colorful language. And yes, he may have intelligence information that the public are not privy to. But we can’t help but ask: Is this red-tagging on a large scale and an endorsement of violence and murder against indigenous peoples?
War hawks in the Armed Forces may view the President’s statement as an order to indiscriminately target civilians, and to intensify the militarization of communities, the threats and intimidation, extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, torture, and charging of trumped-up cases against students, teachers and tribal leaders, and the encampment and destruction by the military of schools. That would be disastrous.
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