Study Bares Child Labor Prevalent in Palm Oil Plantations in Caraga

Children as young as 10 years old do backbreaking work for meager wages in what the Aquino government calls as one of its “sunshine industries,” the palm oil plantations in Caraga region in Mindanao island.

By INA ALLECO R. SILVERIO
Bulatlat.com

MANILA — Allan is only 17, but he has been working full-time since he was 10.

“It’s back-breaking work, but I do it because I want to help my family. Food is expensive, life is expensive. It’s really hard when you’re not rich,” he said.

Allan lives in Caraga, Northeastern Mindanao and is a farmworker in one of several palm oil plantations in the province, the Agusan Plantation Incorporated (API). He works eight hours a day doing different jobs in the plantation, from harvesting to hauling and loading. He is thin and lanky, but there’s a look of strength in his hands. When standing, he maintains a straight posture, but once sitting, the curve in his back becomes noticeable. There is weariness in his eyes, a look of exhaustion that one does not expect from someone so young. He said that working in the palm oil plantation is a difficult life, but he has known no other existence but one surrounded by poverty. He was able to attend up to second year high school before he stopped and worked full-time.

Then there are children like Jayson, Jerald, Junfil and Jonny, aged 18 to 22. They are also like Allan who work in plantations, but stopped schooling much earlier, ending their formal education at grade five. Others like Racquel, Joseph and many others who have been working since they were five.

Daisy Arago, CTUHR executive director, shares the results of their research on child labor in palm oil plantations.(Photo by Ina Alleco R. Silverio / bulatlat.com)

It is their lives and the conditions they have been exposed to from such an early age that the labor and human rights institution Center for Trade Union and Human Rights (CTUHR) documented in its new research titled ” Children of the Sunshine Industry.” The results of the research were presented in a public forum on October 4 at the Sto. Domingo Church in Quezon City. The research delves into the situation of child workers and laborers in oil plantations in Caraga. In attendance were Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) leaders, CTUHR president Sr. Emelina Villegas, Fr. Quirico Pedregosa of the Church-Worker Solidarity (CWS) network and Commissioner Jose Manuel Mamauag of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR).

Poverty from cash crop palm oil

The palm oil industry in the Philippines began in the 1950s , first in Zamboanga, then in the 1960s in Sultan Kudarat. Came the 80s, plantations were established in Agusan del Sur. There are currently 54,748 hectares devoted to palm oil planted lands in the Philippines, 55 percent or 17,252 hectares are found in Caraga, primarily in Agusan del Sur.

Acording to latest reports, the Benigno Aquino III government aims to expand the coverage of the plantations to 62,500 hectares, and to 200,500 hectares by 2016.

The Aquino government and promoters of palm oil industry claim that there are many benefits to developing the palm oil industry because there is a huge export market in China, India, Pakistan, the United States and Europe.

Palm trees have a higher yield than most crops like bananas, pineapples or coconuts. It requires a shorter gestation period, and is the source of large quantities of non-food by-products and biomass for organic fertilizer, biogas, bio-energy.

The government and agencies such as the Philippine Palm Oil Development Council (PPODC), the Caraga Oil Palm Development Council (COPDC) and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) assert that palm plantations enable farmers to secure higher incomes, reduce rural poverty and provide thousands of jobs for the rural poor.

Palm oil has many uses. Some 80 percent of all palm oil sources are for edible use. It has no cholesterol and easily digestible. It contains vitamin E, and it is used in the production of margarines, vegetable ghee, spreads, confectioneries, and non-dairy products. It is said to be the best oil for frying, and it is also an important raw material in the production of oleochemicals, fatty acids, fatty alcohols, glycerol, and other derivatives for the manufacture of cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, bactericides, and other household and industrial products.

Commissioner Jose Manuel Mamauag of the Commission on Human Rights shares his reaction to the research while Fr. Quirico Pedregosa of the Church-Worker Solidarity (CWS) network (leftmost side), Sr. Emelina Villegas, CTUHR chairwoman and Lito Ustarez of Kilusang Mayo Uno listen. (Photo by Ina Alleco R. Silverio / bulatlat.com)

For all the value of palm oil, however, and the claims made by those who promote the massive land conversion of lands formerly devoted to rice and other staple food crops, the palm oil industry is under attack for countless human rights and labor rights violations. The CTUHR’s new research exposes yet another side of the operations of the industry: the use of child labor.

Children of the palm oil industry

CTUHR executive director Daisy Arago said they used the standards of the International Labor Organization and provisions of RA 9231 An Act Providing For The Elimination Of The Worst Forms Of Child Labor And Affording Stronger Protection For The Working Child, Amending For This Purpose Republic Act No. 7610, As Amended, Otherwise Known As The “Special Protection Of Children Against Child Abuse, Exploitation And Discrimination Act as guidelines for analyzing the conditions of the plantation farmworkers in Caraga region. The research also made use of secondary data from official sources such as government agencies.

The labor rights institution conducted a survey involving 604 households with 2, 363 members from 12 barangays in Agusan del Sur. The respondents — all farmworkers and their children, work in 11 companies and out-grower farms, the two biggest being the Filipinas Palm Oil Plantation, Inc or FPPI (Indonesian-Malaysian-Filipino owned) and the API(Singaporean-Filipino owned). The survey as well as the focused group discussions were conducted from September 2011-Nov 2011 and February to May 2012 respectively.

The CTUHR’s survey covered the work conditions of child laborers and adult workers in the API/Agumil and FPPI-NGEI (nucleus plantations) and the out-grower plantations Karaga Farm, Uraya, Kuftrinco, Lubrico, Armelle Jay, Galo, St. Joseph, Serano and Webina Farms.

Of those surveyed, 36.4 percent are children between 5 to 17 years, 46.8 percent are of working age (18 years old) and 12.4 percent are below five years old. Arago said it was “shocking” to learn that based on their survey, 24 percent of workers in palm oil plantations are children.

“They’re so young, yet they’re already engaged in hard labor. At their age, they should be in school, or playing, enjoying their childhood. They should be spared from hardship, but because their parents are poor and they live in a situation of capitalist exploitation, they are forced to grow up early,” she said.

Based on the survey, boys comprise a large majority of child workers at 77 percent, while the girls account for 22.6 percent. Some 72 percent of all child plantation laborers in Agusand del Sur live in five barangays: Manat in Trento,Tagbahan, Ebro, Maligaya and Mati in Agusan del Sur.

“Like their adult counterparts, child workers engage in various plantation work activities; they work as fruiters, harvesters, haulers, kickeralls and as uprooters. Harvesting is one of the most strenuous activities as children have to use a long and heavy steel rod with a scythe at the end with which they cut the fruit from the tree. Loading is also very difficult,” Arago explained.

She said child laborers carry 15 to 45 kilos of fresh fruit bunch (FFB), referring to the palm fruit which grows in bunches or big clumps like bananas. Each child worker carries two to three bunches on their back with each trip from the harvest area to the pick-up point where the fruit bunch and loose fruit are weighed and loaded on a truck.

P25 to P150 for eight hours hard labor

There are no laws governing the work hours of the child laborers. Most of them or 85 percent of all those surveyed said they work for eight hours every day. Some (a small five percent) work part-time or below eight hours. The remaining percentage work for as many as 12 hours daily.

“For a moment let us pretend that child labor is already given. Imagine that these children work as hard as their adult counterparts, but they also earn as little. Eighty-six percent of the child laborers who work full-time in the plantations are paid below the minimum wage. Like most of their adult counterparts, they are casual workers — never signing contracts, never receiving benefits from the company,” she said.

Arago said a hauler is paid P3.00 ($0.07) for every bunch he hauls, regardless of how heavy it is. Harvesters are also paid P3.00 ($0.07) for each bunch they harvest, but his income doesn’t increase even if he harvests more than 50 bunches.

“This means he has to haul at least 50 bunches a day to earn at least P150 ($3.57). Only 10 percent of the surveyed child workers earn the minimum wage, while the remaining four percent earn above the minimum,” she said.

At the time of the study, the minimum wage for plantation workers in the region was pegged at P231 a day ($5.50) or P6,006 ($143) a month for 26 days of work. The amount the child workers receive, however, differ. Of those surveyed, 36 percent of those paid below the mimum only get P4,500 ($107) a month. Thirteen percent receive P3,000 ($69.67) a month and about 10 percent get P4,000 ($95.23) a month. The rest get only P2,500 ($58.14) and even less for a month’s work.

Loose fruiters are paid differently. A child laborer is paid P5.00 to P8 .00 ($0.12 to $0.19) per bucket of loose fruit, which contains five kilos. In a day if he is able to fill the average five buckets, he receives P25 to P40 ($0.60 to $0.95) for an eight-hour work day.

Arago said that considering the nature of work and the price of the fresh fruit bunch per kilogram, the already below-minimum wage rates (particularly of the harvesters and haulers) do not make a slightest dent in the company or farm’s production costs and expenses. The minimum quota some companies like the API impose is 45 fresh fruit bunches a day.

“We used the conservative price workers at a palm oil milling plant gave us to compute the profits of palm oil companies. It came out that companies get a 92.75 percent profit from each fresh fruit bunch. This means that the company or farm pays only the cost of three bunches for every worker who harvests even up to 50 fresh fruit bunches a day,” she said.

An fresh fruit bunch weighing the minimum 15 kilos sells at P86.25, ($2.053) at P5.75 ($0.13) per kilo. Deduct from this the P6.00 ($.0.14) paid to the harvester and the hauler. The difference of P80.25 ($1.91) goes to the company, excluding other costs like rent and processing; this is equivalent to 92.75 percent of the value of the fresh fruit bunch and the oil extracted from it.

In the survey, it was found out that 74 percent of the children in the 5-17 year-old age group attend school, and 38 percent are in the lower years from kindergarten to third grade. Forty percent attend the the fourth to six grade; 15 percent are in high school, from the first and second year levels. Sadly, 71 percent of all those who attend school end up reaching only the fifth grade.

Backbreaking work

Child workers in the plantations are also exposed to many occupational hazards. Most of them, unsurprisingly, suffer from fatigue and minor injuries.

“Some have experienced having a fruit bunch fall on their heads, or suffering cuts that bleed badly because of the sharp thorns of the bunch. They consider these ‘minor injuries’ because, as the children said, they can still get up, stand and walk after getting hit by a fruit bunch or cut by thorns,” Arago said.

Based on the research, 68 of the 97 interviewed child laborers have been injured at work, 41 percent of them had minor injuries. Some of those who were practically stabbed with the thorns fall sick with fever. Others said they slipped and fell on slopes and rolled down with the heavy baskets loaded with fruit bunches they carried. Of those surveyed, five percent said they have had bone fractures.

“But even when they are feeling ill with aching bodies, feet and backs, child haulers, loaders and harvesters still report to work. Not going to work automatically means no money on the days they were absent,” Arago said.

Child laborers like their adult counterparts in the Agusan plantations are not provided with safety shoes, gloves or goggles. They wear only long-sleeved shirts, pants, and rubber slippers. If they get injured, the companies only give out paracetamol tablets and the “no work, no pay” policy is strictly enforced regardless of whether the failure to report to work was caused by an accident at the plantation.

“Some of the children — seven percent of those interviewed — said that they have had eye problems. Loose fruiters — or the ones who collect loose fruit — in particular, are susceptible to the herbicides sprayed around the circular base of the palm trees. As they pick the loose fruit with their bare hands and standing on uncovered feet, they come into contact with the pesticides that also spread to surrounding grass and leaves,” said Arago.

A vicious cycle

Based on the CTUHR’s research, child laborers are hired in a myriad of ways, but primarily they begin their work on the prodding of their parents who are also farmworkers.

“Can we blame these parents? Do we report them to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD)? Their own parents were also child laborers before them. Neither parents nor children have known any other life but poverty. There are barely jobs in many areas in Caraga, the eight poorest region in the country. The incidence of hunger in the region is also quite high at 47 percent of the total population as per 2009 statistics. There is a serious lack of social services like public health, housing and education. People there grit their teeth and bear the daily hardships they suffer. Children from an early age are taught that,” Arago said.

Arago said it is precisely the poverty of the parents that make child labor a severe and widespread phenomenon is areas like Caraga and the rest of the Philippines.

“There’s mass unemployment and lack of access to means of livelihood in the region. The palm oil industry only contributes 1,400 jobs, but every worker has to cover eight to 10 hectares on a regular basis.

Needless to say, adult workers also receive low, below minimum, wages just like the child laborers. The immediate and direct consequence is the families’ limited capacity or inability to send their children to schools. This in turn already clips whatever potential they have for better economic opportunities. It’s a vicious cycle,” she said.

Hold companies accountable

While the palm oil industry is being hailed by the Aquino government to be a sunshine industry, it does not shine upon the lives of the plantation workers who earn starvation wages, or on the lives of the children it illegally employs.

“The high number of child workers in the areas we surveyed indicates the continuing underdevelopment of the communities in the areas within and surrounding palm oil plantations. To end child labor in palm oil plantations, parents — the workers — must be given the means to provide for their children and the entire family,” Arago said.

Arago said that with the help of the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU), the Church-Worker Solidarity network and the rest of the human and labor rights community, the CTUHR will launch a campaign to push for the implementation of legally-mandated minimum wages and benefits for all workers in Caraga palm oil plantations and in the other regions.

“This is one way to put a stop to child labor — by easing the economic burdens of the parents, and by pressuring the palm oil companies to stop violating minimum wage laws. These companies should also be exposed for violating countless occupational health and safety standards. Finally, the fact that they hire child laborers is also a serious violation: they are more accountable than the parents who would never have sent their children to work if they earned enough to keep their children in school,” she said.

In the meantime, children like Allan work and wait, and the palm oil industry in Caraga continues to make money from their lost childhood. 

Ilocano Youth, Study History (A Martial Law Commemoration Statement)

Kabataang Ilocano, Pag-aralan ang Kasaysayan, Labanan ang Pasismo ng Kasalukuyang Rehimen

by  ANAKBAYAN - NUSP - CEGP - KABATAAN PARTYLIST ILOCOS REGION 

40 taon na ang nakakalipas nang ideklara ni Marcos ang Martial Law.Isang malagim na kabanata sa ating kasaysayan kung saan ang kalayaanng mamamayan ay binusalan. Ngunit bago pa lamang nito ay samu’t saring anti-mamamayang polisiya na ang ipinatupad ni Marcos.

Setyembre 11, 1982, sa mismong kaarawan ni Marcos ay ipinasa ang Education Act of 1982. Sa pamamagitan ng batas na ito ay lalo pang lumalaang komersalisasyon ng edukasyon. Tinanggal ang kapangyarihan ng estado na iregularisa ang pagtaas ng mga bayarin sa mga paaralan.

Makalipas ang 40 taon, ano na nga ba ang pagkakaiba ng rehimeng Aquino sa batas militar ni Marcos?

Kung kay Marcos naisabatas ang Educ Act of 1982, kay Noynoy naman ipinatupad ang sunud-sunod at walang prenong pagtaas ng mga bayarin sa mga State Universities and Colleges mismo. Bukod pa dito ay ang mga SUC ng Region 1 ang may pinakamalaking kaltas sa budget ngayong taonna 6.79% o aabot sa P88,929 na bawas.

Dagdag pa rito ay ang pagsisimula ng K-12 Program na tukoy naman nang hindi tutugon sa tunay na pangangailangan ng mga paaralan. Sa IlocosSur mismo ay may kakulangan na ng 131 na guro para sa pampublikong elementarya at 54 naman sa hayskul. Hindi pa rin natutugunan na kakulangan sa mga upuan na aabot ng 26,567sa elementarya at 6,332 sa hayskul.

Tulad ng pambabasura ni Marcos sa sektor ng edukasyon, ganoon na lamang din ang ipinapakita ni Noynoy sa kasalukuyang panahon. Patuloy rin ang paggamit ng dahas at lakas ng militar sa mga paaralan at komunidad. Mandatory na muli ang pagsali sa ROTC sa ilang mga pamantasan samantalang hindi pa rin nabibigyang solusyon ang isyu ng korapsyon at pagiging mersenaryo nito. Sa ISPSC, ang mga guro pa nga mismo ang nagpipilit sa mga estudyante na sa ROTC pumasok kahit labag ito sa kanilang kagustuhan at batas. 

Tahasan rin ang recruitment ng CAFGU at AFP sa mga kabataan sa komunidad para diumano maging katulungan nila sa pagtataguyod ng kapayapaan sa lugar sa ilalim ng Oplan Bayanihan. Subalit, batay na rin sa marahas na pagkamatay ni Nicolas Ramos at Elmer Valdez sa kamay ng mga militar noong 2010, hindi kapayapaan kundi karahasan ang ipinapalaganap ng AFP sa mga komunidad. 

Sa ating paggunita ng deklarasyon ng Martial Law, kailangang muli nating sariwain ang diwa ng pagkakaisa at sama-samang pagkilos para malabanan ang pasismong dulot ng rehimeng Aquino sa ngayon. 

Labanan ang Pagtataas ng Matrikula! Labanan ang Komersalisasyon ngEdukasyon!Ibasura ang Education Act of 1982! Ibasura ang K-12! Oplan Bayanihan Biguin! Karapatang Pantao, Ipaglaban! Manindigan at Kumilos para sa Tunay na Pagbabago!

ANAKBAYAN - NUSP - CEGP - KABATAAN PARTYLIST ILOCOS REGION

"Inclusive Education that Promotes Diversity in Schools and Classrooms"

Pasi Sahlberg wrote:

The school network is based on the idea of inclusive education that promotes diversity in schools and classrooms. Steering of teaching and learning has never been based on written standards, but rather upon guidelines encouraging creative solutions within increasingly diverse social and human environments.

To bring the above to a concrete situation, I am sharing here a short video of Davao Today made by Mick Basa, John Rizle Saligumba, and Lorie Ann Cascaro:

The video above is accompanied by an article:

School brings hope to Ata Manobo children

Posted on Aug 23, 2012 

http://davaotoday.com/main/2012/08/23/school-brings-hope-to-ata-manobo-children/

These lumad children long for knowledge.  Not even their parents can stop them from going to school, even if it means they have to contend with their empty stomachs.
By JOHN RIZLE L. SALIGUMBA
Davao Today

TALAINGOD, Davao del Norte, Philippines — 15-year-old Asenad Bago, an Ata-Manobo, has made his school his home.

This is because Asenad’s sub-village (sitio) is three hours away by foot from the Salugpungan Ta ‘Tanu Igkanugon (Unity in Defense of Ancestral Land) Community Learning Center, located in Sitio Dulyan, Palma Gil Village.  He asked his teachers that he could stay with the school staff.  In return to their kindness, he wakes up early “to clean around the school grounds and do other errands for the teachers.”

For the Ata Manobo youth and children like Asenad, the school has been a great help for them in learning basic literacy.  Without such school, youths like him would have to travel greater distance to public schools in town proper.

Another reason why Asenad prefers this school is that “the teachers provide me with what I need for school like my bag, notebooks and pencil and most especially, food.”

This Salugpungan Community Learning Center is running for nine years and taught 558 Ata Manobo students.

The school started nine years ago in 2003, as a non-formal school of the religious organization Rural Missionaries of the Philippines (RMP) in Southern Mindanao.

The tribal leaders of Salugpungan thought that education is key for the future generation, especially in learning how to defend their culture and their land against the encroachment of mining and other industries.

Their hopes were supported by the RMP especially through the efforts of the slain Italian missionary Father Fausto ‘Pops’ Tentorio, PIME (Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions), who was then the chair of the RMP Board of Directors.

Fr. Tentorio, who runs literacy programs in North Cotabato province, extended support to Talaingod.

Later in 2007, the Salugpungan Council and RMP established a primary school.  Now there are 10 Ata-Manobo schools.  Fr. Tentorio had supported the schools through donations and financial support from his friends in Italy.

Now, the Salugpungan Community Learning Center has become a full-fledged elementary school, offering primary education — for free — up to Grade Six.

But, the religious and the lumads’ initiative to gain access to basic education had been undermined with lack of government support.

Even if the Salugpungan school offers free education, the Department of Education (DepEd) has continuously denied its accreditation.

“That’s because we were not able to meet all the department’s requisites; requirements which we think are not practical for a school situated in the mountains,” laments Ronnie Garcia, the school’s first teacher.

He added, they were only given a permit to operate which they have to renew every year.

Garcia, a Mansaka lumad from Mabini, Compostela Valley province, was an RMP scholar himself who took up education course in college.  After his graduation, he volunteered to teach the Ata-Manobos here in Talaingod.

He shared that this year has been more difficult for the school as DepEd required them to submit electrical, building and Bureau of Fire Protection permits, among others.

Garcia also noted that they have modified the school’s curriculum so that it will fit the community’s needs, especially on their culture and tradition.  He added, the school has yet to discuss how to effectively implement DepEd’s new program, the K to 12.

As a teacher and a student once, Garcia said that requiring them to comply with the numerous requirements is tantamount to denying the indigenous peoples’ right to education, an added burden in the midst of their suffering from severe poverty.

Bago himself has witnessed how some of his classmates come to school with an empty stomach.

“Because of hunger, some of them cannot concentrate on the day’s lesson and many just fall asleep,” he said.

Students here bring with them root crops and yams, whenever it’s possible.  They also look for food very early in the morning, which most of the time, stretches until school time.  “That’s why some of them come to school late,” Bago said.

These lumad children long for knowledge.  Not even their parents can stop them from going to school, even if it means they have to contend with their empty stomachs.

“I’m really happy because since he goes to school, he has learned how to speak Bisaya, and to read and count,” said Bago’s father, Dolfo.

But for Bago, he hungers for more knowledge, not only for him but for his fellow lumad children, as well.

“I hope a Salugpungan High School will be established.  We want to reach high school, also, and eventually graduate” Bago said with full of hope.  (John Rizle L. Saligumba/ davaotoday.com)

Wrong Approach

by Atty. Aleck Francis "Koy-koy" T. Lim
Bohol Standard Online

So far, many Filipinos are not happy with the new educational system recently introduced by the administration and implemented by DepEd. It’s like giving a wrong medicine to a misdiagnosed illness. If the purpose of the K+12 Program is to improve quality of our education, the government must first address the old problems before it tackles new ones. The 2-year extension of mandatory public education in our country has received a favorable support both from politicians and top honchos of the Department of Education. By looking at all the good intentions this revised program wants to achieve, it appears that the plan is on the winning side. However, there are serious problems DepEd and the government must first look into. The extension is of course costly. More classrooms, books, and teachers will be added to the system. And that’s where the more serious issues crop up. How can the government add more classrooms when in fact today we do not have enough classrooms for all students? How can the government add more books for the K-12 program when in fact many students are still deprived of books at schools? All can be aggravated by the fact that we are losing brilliant teachers to Western and Asian countries who continuously hire Filipino teachers to teach core subjects abroad such as English, Math and Science. Isn’t it wise and logical, and simply an exercise of common sense, that before we become very serious with the K-12 (additional two-year program) educational change we should first address and fix the tangible deficiencies of our education? DepEd cannot just plunge into the future of uncertainties without first looking at the current problems that besiege Philippine education. We have not mentioned of the declining quality of Philippine education. While our Asian neighbors have made gigantic leaps in harnessing their educational system, ours is still stuck with mediocrity and traditionalism. And we cannot just ignore the fact that even our English proficiency, which for decades had made us remarkable in the world, is fast deteriorating. By introducing a revised educational system without first repairing its loopholes, the government has become guilty of reckless dreaming. We have to see first the current reality before we entertain good dreams otherwise the K-12 program might just turn out as another nightmare for everyone. And we should not forget to mention the noodles scandal at DepEd in which almost half a billion pesos was wasted on the so-called noodle feeding program for malnourished pupils. That scandal had given us a perspective that the K-12 program might as well be a subtle ploy for DepEd officials to set up a new source of personal income for those who have personal interests in government funding. What bothers us most is the seeming blindness of the DepEd. It has to see first the ancient problems that scuttle the entire educational system in the country before it moves to a bolder step. Failure to do so would just result to multiplication of the existing problems of Philippine education.

On Human Rights, Linguistic Rights, and Mother-Tongue Based Multilingual Education

These words are huge and complex. Each one represents a value, an expression of importance. These are supposedly beacons to guide priorities. Justice, one of the seven values that guided Finland's education reform, is another big word. And in Pasi Sahlberg's words, this entailed "Attaining the goal of offering equal opportunities to a quality education for all has required creating and maintaining a socially just school network."

"Education for All" encompasses all the words in the title of this post. It is the yardstick that must be used to gauge education reforms in the Philippines, including DepEd's K to 12. It must be the primary objective, the rule that should set priorities. When DepEd spends money, time and effort on advertising its new curriculum in shopping malls, one should ask if these efforts are indeed in line with the priorities set by "Education for All".  When DepEd institutes the use of the mother tongue as medium of instruction, one must ask if this is a genuine effort for inclusive education. When DepEd jumps into new approaches, one must ask if basic needs have been provided first.

Leo Ortega Laparan II has been writing a series of article in the Manila Bulletin describing the current situation of schools in the northern islands of the Philippines. The latest in this series talks about Cadadalman Elementary School in Camiguin Norte Island. There are overcrowded classes, lack of textbooks, and poor facilities. The head teacher had the following to share:

“We even use the backstage to hold Grade 4 classes. For that, schoolchildren would have to endure the heat… even us teachers. At present, we lack a school building because of the Preparatory (referring to Kindergarten) classes, which became mandatory effective last year. That makes it seven years for us now. The kids won’t be allowed to enter Grade 1 without taking Prep. That’s why the room that you saw earlier was divided into two. We just chose the best room in terms of safety to ensure the wellbeing of the little children.” 

 The situation in Camiguin Elementary School is no different, as reported earlier in this series by Laparan. Classrooms no longer have ceilings and walls are cracked. Pupils hold umbrellas to keep themselves dry when it rains since their rooms no longer protect them from the elements. With regard to textbooks, as many as ten pupils share one copy and for science in Grade 3, for instance, a 1985 edition is still in use. These stories from the north do highlight the shortages Philippine schools continue to face. Although these islands are indeed remote, one must not be blind to the shortages in schools that are in the neighborhood of the Congress as well as in the public schools near the national offices of the Department of Education. It is a question of priorities, do we put up a display or presentation of K to 12 in the shopping malls or do we send books to Camiguin first?

Inclusive education is a high priority. The rationale behind mother tongue education partly rests on pupils' basic rights. This is in addition to preserving and nurturing cultural heritage. In a recently held International Conference on Teacher Education, Prof. Romylyn Metila of the UP College of Education presented a paper on “The Role of Teacher Education in Championing Linguistic Human Rights (LHR) and Effective Language Learning through Multilingual Education (MLE): A Fight for Fairness”. In the presentation, Metila stressed the need to examine closely the provisions of policies aimed at addressing linguistic rights and mother tongue education. Factors that require thoughtful considerations were enumerated. First, there is a need to recognize that the Philippines is really diverse in terms of languages. There are more than one hundred and fifty languages in the country. Second, the appropriateness and adequacy of these languages to serve as medium of instruction must be evaluated. Third, the spelling and grammar of these languages need to be set before these languages can be extensively used in reading and writing. And of course, last but not the least, the question of how prepared teachers are was likewise raised. The importance of educating the young on their native culture and tongue is not debatable. What requires careful examination are the pedagogical and practical sides of the argument. And these sides are best handled by the teachers and principals in their own respective schools. Inclusive education should be the main goal of the Department of Education in the Philippines. How the academic performance of students in the Philippines could be enhanced is the job of the teacher and not of a bureaucracy.

Sr. Ma. Famita Somogod, Rural Missionaries of the Philippines-Northern Mindanao Sub-Region (RMP-NMR) coordinator, has this to say:

"...Even as the government has identified education as its priority service, the indigenous peoples of Mindanao view it as a “vague illusion.” Accredited schools supposedly established for indigenous peoples were built or established in areas far from the communities. Many residents are also unable to pay even the smallest fees, and some of the Lumad children spend their formative years in community alternative learning schools usually established with the aid of non-government organizations. Even in the rare situations where communities are benefited by a literacy and numeracy school, these are not sustained because of counter-insurgency operations of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). Instead of protecting the communities from rebel groups, the communities have become the targets of the operations. Militarization and war have resulted to human rights violations, exacerbating the living conditions of the already impoverished indigenous communities, with indigenous children becoming most vulnerable...

...In a conflict situation, children are robbed of both their right to learn and their right to live a child’s life. They are forced to violent realities too early, forced to experience terror too often. And this is not yet even going into the post-conflict trauma that these children suffer. Without access to education, there will be no room for indigenous communities to promote personal development, strengthen respect for human rights and freedoms, and enable individuals to participate freely in a free society...."

To read more,  visit http://www.internal-displacement.org/8025708F004CE90B/(httpDocuments)/48B4F5D25D01D17EC1257A09004EFAA7/$file/Education+and+Militarization+of+IP+Comm+-+Our+Experience+as+Rural+Missionaries+in+Mindanao+april+2012.pdf

 The following are videos depicting the current plight of the Mamanwa tribe of Agusan del Norte:

These are stories from the north and the south. These stories hopefully can help us understand better the words in the title of this post.