By BULATLAT.COM
The cold-blooded killing on Sept. 1 of Emerito Samarca, the executive director of the Alternative Learning Center for Agricultural and Livelihood Development, Inc. (Alcadev) by the paramilitary group Magahat-Bagani Force is the latest in the attacks against the alternative boarding school in Surigao del Sur.
Alcadev was established in 2004 by the Manobo group Malahutayong Pakigbisog Alang sa Sumusunod (Persevering Struggle for the Next Generation) in the subvillage of Han-ayan, in Diatagon village, Lianga. It had produced hundreds of secondary school graduates from the ranks of the Lumads and served as a symbol of the collective effort for education of the hinterland Manobo communities.
Alcadev and the alternative primary schools run by the Tribal Filipino Program for Surigao del Sur (Trifpss) have also been consistently targeted by harassment operations by military and paramilitary units, which called the learning centers “schools of the New People’s Army (NPA).”
Bulatlat.com is reposting articles through the years about Alcadev, the persistent attacks against the school and the surrounding communities – and their recurring evacuation – which show the struggle of the indigenous peoples in defense of their ancestral lands in Andap Valley.
2005
Troops force Manobos to flee Andap Valley
A rights watch group reports of hundreds of Manobo families evacuating their villages in Andap Valley, Surigao del Sur following relentless military operations against the NPA.
Fist part
Second part
2007
Surigao del Sur children want to go home for Christmas
2009
Under the Gun
First part: School for tribal children in Surigao bears the brunt of militarization
2nd part: School helps build Lumad communities to military’s consternation
3rd part: Lumad school rises amid conflict, military atrocities
Sidebar: The pattern of military atrocities in Lianga
Groups, DepEd worried over militarization of Lumad school
Military threat remains as displaced Lumad returns home to defaced homes, damaged crops
In Caraga region, a brutal push for investments
Lumad school carry on with pedagogical work amid continuing threats
2010
A fulfilled promise of providing education for Lumads
2012
Advocacy group for indigenous peoples pushes agenda for education
Groups hold confab in defense of schools for indigenous children
2014
Schools under siege
Militarization triggers evacuation of 2,000 Lumads in Surigao del Sur
They murder a teacher? How brave they are …