SunStar Bakwit School 7 cleared of charges, released
REUNITED. Six of the Bakwit School 7 detainees find themselves together at the Police Regional Office 7 for medical check-up prior to their release on Friday, May 14, 2021. / CONTRIBUTED
+ May 14, 2021 AFTER almost three months in detention, two teachers, three adult Lumad students and two Lumad elders were set free on Friday, May 14, 2021.
The Davao del Norte Provincial Prosecutor issued a release order as it dismissed the complaints for kidnapping and serious illegal detention, human trafficking and child abuse for lack of evidence and lack of probable cause.
Even if evidence was found against them, the prosecutors said the cases fall outside the jurisdiction of their office as the alleged crimes happened in Cebu City.
Published February 17, 2021, 2:32 PM
CEBU CITY – The presence of the Lumad children from Davao del Norte in a retreat house of a university here had the permission of their parents.
This was the claim of the Save Our Schools (SOS) Network Cebu, which facilitated the Lumad children’s stay in Cebu as members of the Lumad Bakwit school.
University of the Philippines-Cebu Professor Regletto Imbong, convenor of Save of Schools (SOS) Network-Cebu, alleged that the continued destruction of ancestral lands and the purported abuses suffered by Lumads for being the source of recruitment of the New People’s Army forced them to flee from their communities.