Philippine Vice President and Secretary of Education, Sara Duterte, has been invited by the United Nations to its Transforming Education Summit this September 16, 17, and 19 in New York. We view this as an insult to Filipino youth and other learners, who have been under direct attack by Sara Duterte, her father, and the administration she represents. Rather than being a champion to transform education, Duterte has forcibly closed down Indigenous Lumad schools, labeled youth and educations rights activists as terrorists, and prioritizes the militarization of youth and education.

Take action now by sending our letter demanding the UN to revoke its invitation of Sara Duterte, and to hold the Philippine government accountable for its attacks on the right to education. Just enter your information, click "Start Writing," and then "Send Letter."

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Text of Letter:

We—the undersigned Filipino youth, students, educators, environmentalists, Indigenous rights advocates, activists, people of faith, allies, and community members—are united in our deep concern for the United Nations’ invitation of Sara Duterte to its Transforming Education Summit (TES) this September 2022 and its appointment of Duterte as a national convener for the Philippines.

The already existing education crisis in the Philippines—in which brutal poverty combined with profit-centric schooling has excluded many from attaining an education—was exacerbated by the Duterte family. The administration of Rodrigo Duterte, Sara Duterte’s father, critically mishandled the COVID-19 pandemic, with the Philippines having one of the lowest vaccination rates in Asia on the cusp of school reopenings. The Duterte administration also oversaw the creation of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), which has led the charge in red-tagging and criminalizing indigenous Lumad youth who advocate for their right to education and ancestral land. This is in addition to Rodrigo Duterte’s all-out military attack on Lumad communities, who kept true to his promise to bomb Lumad schools. Thanks to the work of Rodrigo Duterte and his forces in the military and NTF-ELCAC, all 215 Lumad schools have been shut down and no longer operate.

Sara Duterte, even before she became Vice President and Secretary of Education, has been complicit in these attacks. As Mayor of Davao City, she ordered the immediate closure of 11 indigenous Lumad schools operated by Salugpongan Ta' Tanu Igkanugon Community Learning Center Inc. (STICLCI). She even stated that a community-led school “is useless because it is not and it will never be recognized by DepEd.” Now, as Secretary of Education, Sara Duterte continues to red-tag Lumad schools and their supporters. Her words and actions reinforce the political repression against Lumad youth being committed under the new Ferdinand Marcos Jr. administration, who now chairs the NTF-ELCAC. Already, two Lumad youth and graduates of Lumad schools—Ismael and Mawing Pangadas—were arrested under the Marcos Jr. administration for trumped-up charges of trafficking.

Beyond direct attacks on the Lumad community, Sara Duterte shows a clear inability to manage education during a pandemic, similar to her father. She has ordered students to return to in-person schooling regardless of their vaccination status despite admitting herself that vaccines are readily available. She lacks a formal plan to properly ensure the safety of millions of students and, thus, puts their lives gravely at risk. In the spirit of continuing her father’s legacy, she also plans to make military enrollment mandatory at the age of 18. This would deny recently graduated young adults the ability to begin careers or even pursue higher education at state universities and colleges whose budgets are already planning to be cut by P1.3 billion. Furthermore, Sara Duterte has advocated for mandatory ROTC training to be on the priority legislative agenda under the new administration, demonstrating that her priority is not to provide education to all in the country but instead to feed students into a military notorious for human rights violations, including the occupation and aerial bombing of Lumad schools.

Given this track record, it should be called into question Sara Duterte’s ability to transform education positively. We therefore demand to the United Nations and its Transforming Education Summit Advisory Committee:

1. To revoke its invitation of Sara Duterte to the TES;
2. To urge the Philippine Department of Education to reissue permits to all Lumad schools forcibly and unjustly closed down under the Duterte administration;
3. To urge the Philippine Department of Education to prevent the institution of mandatory ROTC and mandatory military enlistment;
4. To urge the Marcos Jr. administration to pull out all military and paramilitary personnel, as well as agents of the NTF-ELCAC, from Lumad schools and other educational institutions; and
5. To urge the Marcos Jr. administration to investigate and hold accountable the Rodrigo Duterte administration for violations of International Humanitarian Law, including indiscriminate aerial bombing and drone strikes targeting civilian Lumad communities.