Prosecutor junks criminal raps vs. people arrested in Lumad school

The Davao del Norte Prosecutor’s Office has dismissed the criminal complaints filed against seven individuals who were arrested following the supposed rescue of indigenous children from alleged communist rebels in Cebu City in February.

In a resolution dated May 5, the prosecutor’s office junked the complaints for kidnapping and serious illegal detention, human trafficking, and child abuse for being outside the territorial jurisdiction of Davao del Norte, insufficiency of evidence, and lack of probable cause to support any of the crimes allegedly committed by the respondents.

It also directed the Philippine National Police (PNP) to “immediately release” the respondents, namely Chad Errol Booc, Segundo Melong, Benito Bay-ao, Moddie Mansimoy-at, Esmelito Oribawan, Roshelle Mae Porcadilla, and Jomar Benag.

“The dismissal of the complaints [filed by the PNP] against the Bakwit School 7 validates our firm assertion that the persistent red-tagging efforts on Lumad schools by the state forces are baseless and unfounded,” said the National Union of People's Lawyers—Cebu chapter, who represented six of the respondents, in a statement.

“The indigenous peoples and their leaders have been victims of state terrorism because of their long history of struggle against the exploitation of their ancestral lands.”

Police took into custody 19 minors belonging to the Manobo tribe on February 15 following a raid at a retreat house inside the University of San Carlos-Talamban Campus in Cebu City.

According to then-PNP chief Police General Debold Sinas, the operation was a manifestation that the rebels had been continuously engaged in recruiting minors to be trained as child warriors for the communist movement.

The USC and the Societas Verbi Divini Philippines, however, said the students who were taken by police were being “nurtured, cared for and treated with their best interest in mind” in a retreat house.

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

The PNP said the Lumad students were previously enrolled in the Salugpungan School allegedly run by the rebels in Talaingod, Davao del Norte but shut down by the Department of Education in 2019.

Their parents sought help from the local government of Davao del Norte to locate their missing children, according to the police.

But the prosecutor said not a single witness from the side of the complainants was able to identify who took the minors from Talaingod.

“According to the affidavits executed by the parents, the persons who took their children away were unspecified Salugpungan teachers,” the resolution stated.

The prosecutor’s office added it had no jurisdiction to investigate offenses that took place outside of Davao del Norte.

The resolution was approved by Provincial Prosecutor Norman Solis. --KBK, GMA News