MANILA (UCAN): Rights and Church groups in the Philippines condemned a February 15 police raid on the University of San Carlos in Cebu City during which 25 teachers and young students were taken into custody. According to reports, those detained included seven adults and 19 minors.
The raid took place at a retreat house on the university’s campus that indigenous people, known as Lumads, had turned into an educational centre. Police claim the raid was a “rescue operation” to save students undergoing training as “future terrorists.”
The Lumads are often accused by the government of being members of the outlawed Communist Party, whose armed wing has led a decades-old insurgency.
“These students detained … were being housed in the Catholic school’s grounds to undergo revolutionary training as future armed combatants,” police insisted.
The Society of the Divine Word (SVD), which runs the university, hit back saying that the teachers and students were part of a Catholic Church education programme.
“They were at the SVD-owned retreat house … to complete their modular schooling on 3 April 2020, after which they would have returned to their respective indigenous communities,” the congregation said in a statement.
They were staying on campus due to pandemic restrictions in the province, the statement added.
