Professor Myfel Paluga, chairperson of the indigenous peoples advocacy group Sagip, cited the deplorably neglected lumad and peasant children who, like Marianeth, wish for school bags, shoes, toys, a happy home and food on the dining table.
Paluga, an anthropology professor in the University of the Philippines Mindanao, cited the case of Ata-Manobo children in Talaingod, Davao Del Norte, where nearly 200 children, aged 6 15, had to walk on hilly slopes for two to three hours daily on their way to school just to learn how to read and write.
The throng to Mariannet Amper’s final resting place. (davaotoday.com photo by Barry Ohaylan)
In a privilege speech on suicide and poverty, Councilor Angela Librado-Trinidad urged the city mayor to allocate more funds for children and to channel more support the public schools. She also asked the city mayor to review the budget for the Task Force Davao children and spend it on children, if needed be.
Librado, who chair the committee on women, children and family relations, said that children victims of neglect could not wait. They have the right to decent homes, to education and to protection, she said. And yet, because of the continuing inequity, social inequality, and oppression of our people, children bear the brunt.
But in the midst of his diatribes against perceived political rival House Majority Floorleader Prospero Nograles, Mayor Rodrigo Duterte denied that poverty exist in that magnitude in Davao City and called for an autopsy of the girls body to determine the real cause of her death.
Mariannets classroom adviser denied the school had required projects worth P100 worth from their pupils.
They all came to see the girl whose death shook their worlds. (davaotoday.com photo by Barry Ohaylan)
Up to the girls burial Saturday, November 10, the teachers at the Ma-a elementary school were baffled about the three projects that Mariannet mentioned to her father before she died and suspected that the girl could have been carrying a much “deeper problem” inside.
Penelope Magtabog, Ma-a Elementary School Grade VI class adviser, said the girl’s teachers have been trying to figure out what were the three projects worth P100 that the girl mentioned to her father but until now, no one could come up with an answer.
“The only project due for submission on November 5 was the compilation of “Bahagi ng Pananalita (Figure of Speech) in a folder, but she can even write it down herself so that she don’t need to spend anything,” the teacher said. “All she needs is a folder.”
Magtabog described Mariannet as “jolly,” and outgoing type, never the type who is “shy” or who “keeps to herself.”
“She was always seen cracking jokes with her classmates, every time she was around,” she said. “She always participated in class.” (Cheryll D. Fiel, davaotoday.com with reports from Germelina Lacorte)
