MALACANANG on Tuesday clarified that President Rodrigo Duterte's threat to bomb Lumad schools in Mindanao was aimed at protecting the youth from any form of activities that promote insurgency.
In a statement, Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella said the President sought to caution anyone in "strongest terms" not to engage the youth in hostile acts.
"The President notes that certain Lumad/ indigenous schools are being used to foment rebellion against the government," Abella said.
"[Duterte] warns them in the strongest terms to discontinue these actions; persistence will warrant appropriate government action," he added.
Abella issued the statement a day after the President threatened Lumads that he would order the police and the military to bomb their schools.
In his second State of the Nation Address (Sona), Duterte told the indigenous peoples to abandon their schools, which he said are "operating illegally."
"The schools of Lumads, they're operating without the Department of Education's permit. In their schools, they are teaching, subversion, communism, and everything. So better leave. I'll tell Lumads now, leave because I will bomb [your schools]," Duterte said on Monday.
Duterte issued the pronouncement after around 300 Lumads joined the protest against his Sona in an attempt to convince him to lift martial law in Mindanao.
Abella said the President only wanted the youth, including the Lumad children, to learn the "right values that instill love of country and respect for laws."
"[Duterte] highlights the need to protect our youth and doing so entails ensuring they get the correct education that reinforces the right values that instill love of country and respect for our laws among others, and not rebellion," he said. (VoxPop Philippines)
