REPORT ON THE SITUATION OF
CHILDREN AFFECTED BY ARMED CONFLICT
IN LIANGA, SURIGAO DEL SUR

Sometime on November 2007, an armed conflict between the military and the New People’s Army erupted in Lianga, Surigao del Sur resulting in the internal displacement of the residents.

On January 22, 2008 the Commission on Human Rights and the Balay Rehabilitation Center, Inc. visited the place to monitor the human rights situation of the people. The visiting team was able to go to Simowao Tribal Filipino School, an elementary school accredited by the Department of Education and being operated by the Tribal Filipino Program of Surigao del Sur (TRIFPSS). The school is located at Kilometer 9, Diatagon, Lianga, Surigao del Sur.

Posted on the school is this information:

“Classes have been suspended in 6 Lumad Community School run by the Tribal Filipino Program of Surigao del Sur (TRIFPSS) and 1 Lumad Highschool run by ALCADEV, Inc. There are about 560 schoolchildren at the different evacuation centers along with 110 highschool students. 30 teachers are also staying with the evacuees.”

One elementary student said the residents walked for almost one day towards the evacuation center, which is the Diatagon Gym, in exodus for their safety.

According to a community teacher of the Simowao Tribal Filipino School, the residents displaced due to armed conflict are from Kilometer 7 to Kilometer 16 of Diatagon, Lianga, Surigao del Sur.

Before the armed conflict, there were eighty (80) students studying in the school; but at the time of the visit, there are only sixty seven (67) students from Grade I to Grade VI who returned back to school.

She claimed that the military used the school as sleeping quarters. When the students returned to school in January 2008, the school supplies such a ballpens, notebooks, and sharpeners were already missing.

A resident also said that when the people returned back to their homes, their livestock such as pigs, goats, and chickens, and also their farm equipments, radios, shoes and household utensils were already gone.

The school looks shabby and is already in a dilapidated condition, as it is built only out of wood, with its roof made of galvanized iron sheets already rusting. Worse, it has no library and toilet. As such, the school is not conducive for studying.

Section 22 paragraphs c and e of Republic Act No. 7610 provides that the delivery of basic social services such as education shall be kept unhampered, and public infrastructure such as schools shall not be utilized for military purposes. The disruption of the education of the students of Lianga, Surigao del Sur due to armed conflict, and the use of the school by the military are, therefore, gross violations on the rights of children.

February 4, 2008

Prepared by:
BRENDA E. CANAPI
Officer-in-Charge, Child Rights Center