Cagayan de Oro City—The military on Sunday denied it had a hand in the destruction of a tribal school in a village in San Fernando town in Bukidnon.
Lt. Col. Silas Trasmontero, commanding officer of the Army’s 89th Infantry Battalion, said they had no part in the incident involving a group of armed men who, witnesses said, destroyed an elementary school in Sitio Laburon in Barangay Mapute.
The school, the group Save Our Schools Network or SOS said, was owned by the Mindanao Interfaith Services Foundation Inc.
According to witnesses, the incident happened around 7:15 a.m. on Aug. 26 as two teachers who were on campus were tending their farm. That was when one of the students alerted them, and the teachers saw the armed men destroying the school buildings and tearing textbooks.
“The teachers were about to take photos of the incident when they were threatened by Lito Gambay, who told them to leave as President Duterte would know about this,” SOS said on a Facebook post.
Witnesses said Gambay, a leader of the “bagani” group, was responsible.
SOS said Gambay was identified by the tribal community as a member of the paramilitary under the command of the 89IB.
Trasmontero said Gambay was not under him and that he did not order the demolition of the school.
Gambay, Trasmontero said, was a former New People’s Army fighter who surrendered to his battalion last year.
He said Gambay was a member of the “bagani” or tribal warrior tasked to defend his community, but the latter was not under the command of the 89IB.
“He [Gambay] is not part of our battalion. He has no 89IB identification card or a gun issued by the Army,” Trasmontero said.
He said he had no paramilitary in his area of responsibility, only the Citizen Armed Forces Geographical Unit.
He said 89IB had no hand in the demolition of the school buildings since it was initiated by the tribal community themselves.
Trasmontero said 89IB had assisted government agencies in building schools for the indigenous communities in at least seven tribal communities in San Fernando and Kitatao towns in Bukidnon.
The MISFI schools operating in the area, he said, had already been vacated when the new Education department-approved elementary schools were finished, and the students had enrolled in these government-sanctioned learning facilities.
These schools were in Laburon, Matupe; Sitios Lugawon, Balao, and Malungon, Barangay Kalagangan; Sitio Langka and Barangay Cabuling, all in San Fernando.
In Kitaotao town, the newly-opened primary schools are in Sitios Salumayag and Kalinawan, Barangay Digongan.
Trasmontero said as of Aug. 30, there were 89 students in Laburon, 52 of whom were from the same place and were former MISFI enrollees. The rest were from the nearby sitios Marawi and Baugan.