PNP claims minors 'rescued' from Reds, USC says there was no need

Nineteen minors, belonging to the Manobo tribe, were said to have been rescued from a retreat house at the University of San Carlos in Cebu City, the  Philippine National Police claimed on Monday.

In a statement, PNP chief Police General Debold Sinas said the minors were rescued from communist rebels at the retreat house.

However, the university, said the minors were part of a 42-person delegation which participated in a modular schooling activity in March 2020.

They were supposed to return to their respective indigenous communities but the COVID-19 lockdowns prevented them from doing so.

"The rescue operation is a manifestation that the reds have been continuously engaged in recruiting minors to be trained as child warriors which is a clear violation of International Humanitarian Law" Sinas said.

In a statement, the USC and the Societas Verbi Divini Philippines said the students whom police claimed they rescued on Monday were being “nurtured, cared for and treated with their best interest in mind” at the retreat house.

“No rescue need ever be conducted because the presence of the lumads in the retreat house was for their welfare and well-being, and all throughout, they were nurtured, cared for, and treated with their best interest in mind,” the joint statement read.

Police said the minors were part of the Manobo tribe in Talaingod, Davao del Norte and communist front groups took them to University of San Carlos Retreat House in Cebu City.

Citing its initial investigation, the police said the Lumad children were from a former alleged NPA-front Salugpungan school  in Talaingod that was closed down by DepEd in 2019

Their parents sought help from the local government of Davao Norte to locate their missing children for more than two years, according to the police.

PNP said some of the minors told investigators that they underwent a warfare training while in the custody of their handlers.

Police Regional Office 7 investigators are considering to file serious illegal detention, human trafficking, and charges for violations of the International Humanitarian Law as well as Special Protection of Children in Situations of Armed Conflict against the arrested suspects.

Asked about the report that those “rescued” claimed that they were actually “harassed,” PNP spokesperson Police Brigadier General Ildebrandi Usana denied the report.

“That report was slanted and malicious. Twenty-one Lumad minors from Talaingog Davao del Norte were actually rescued from a number of arrested suspects,” he told reporters in a message. -NB, GMA News