Mayor Duterte told Cullamat to resign from her House of Representatives post before launching an attack on the government.

Sara gives Bayan Muna solon a piece of her mind.

Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte did not mince words against Bayan Muna Rep. Eufemia Cullamat who protested the city government’s order to close Salugpungan schools that are being used to mold hardcore communist rebels.

Cullamat assailed the padlocking of the schools as having an effect on the initiative of indigenous Lumad tribesmen to learn.

In a text message sent to reporters, Mayor Duterte told Cullamat to resign from her House of Representatives post before launching an attack on the government.

She explained Davao City and the national government reach out to students who are members of various indigenous people (IP) groups, including those who study in Salugpungan schools.

Such institutions are assisted by various organizations that President Rodrigo Duterte had linked to the New People’s Army (NPA).

“Cullamat should resign first from Congress before she attacks the DepEd (Department of Education), AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) and government in general. The government pays for her office. The same government that has helped hundreds if not thousands of IP students compared to the NPA schools they call Salugpungan,” she noted.

The Davao City executive called for the immediate closure of 11 Salugpungan Ta’ Tanu Igkanugon Community Learning Center Inc. (STICLCI)-run schools in the city, accusing its backers of “deceptive acts and practices.”

Mayor Duterte cited the 19 March 2019 City Peace and Order Council (CPOC) resolution asking the DepEd to terminate Salugpungan’s permit to operate.

The CPOC resolution cited the local government’s findings that include the persistent problem of Salugpungan students not having academic records and individual learner’s reference numbers.

The findings also noted the presence of DepEd schools in areas where such institutions operate, negating its purpose of supposedly providing education where the state is not present.

“If she wanted the people to take her seriously, then she should have some respect for herself. Apart from being a mouthpiece and defender of the Communist Party of the Philippines-NPA-National Democratic Front of the Philippines, she is a big empty space. And for the record, the AFP works for me. They only do as much as I allow them because civilian authority is supreme over the military. She should be ashamed of herself as she does not even read the Philippine Constitution,” the Davao City official averred.

On Tuesday, Cullamat, who comes from the Manobo tribe, released a statement responding to Duterte’s statement on the closure of the Salugpungan schools, calling it to be all lies and an insult.

“Mayor Sara’s statement, which is just deception and lies about the lumad schools, is a big mockery to the initiatives of my fellow lumads to study amid discrimination, poverty and ceaseless militarization against our communities,” Cullamat had declared.

“This is an insult to our efforts to address the shortcomings of the government to provide us education and to other children of public services,” she added.

Last Monday, the Davao City government submitted a resolution to DepEd passed on 19 March 2019 requesting the agency to terminate and cancel the permits to operate of 11 Salugpungan schools in their area.

Mayor Duterte cited the testimony of a former student who claimed that these schools are “teaching students how to use firearms, apart from them being indoctrinated with anti-government propaganda.”

President Duterte’s daughter said Salugpungan schools did not give justice to the dreams of Lumad students who joined the organization with the hope of getting assistance to “better their chances in the future.”

“The city government conducted due diligence in inquiring into the activities of Salugpungan schools before coming up with a City Peace and Order Council resolution. The decision was based on facts, not on a whim or rumors as critics and anti-government forces want the public to believe,” she said.

Moreover, the mayor also slammed the Save Our Schools (SOS) network for their actions “to shamelessly lick its wound publicly over the closure of Salugpungan schools.”

She claimed that the organization even hosted a concert in Manila for the benefit of “bakwit schools” or schools for evacuees.

“But students of bakwit schools are lumad children who were brought by SOS Network from their communities and forcibly brought to the cities, away from their homes to be used as poster boys and girls in their anti-government agenda,” Duterte said.

“It is clearly another form of abuse and oppression of Lumad children by a group that feigns being its protectors and defenders. A ‘bakwit’ school, just like Salugpungan schools, is useless because it is not and it will never be recognized by DepEd,” she added.

The local chief executive also emphasized that the schools are “another ploy to solicit pity and money from the public, while advancing their propaganda against the government.”