Writing new lessons, carving new history in battle-scarred Talaingod

TALAINGOD, DAVAO DEL NORTE—On the forested slopes of Sitio Nalubas in Barangay Palma Gil here, the sounds of grave panic used to come from two things: families rushing downhill to evacuate, or the bursts of gunfire. Today, you hear hammers and urgent voices: parents helping put up new classrooms, and children walking to an unfinished school. The change is being led by two men who once fought the government: one used to carry placards in rallies from Davao to Manila; the other, an M16.

UNFINISHED BUT OPERATIONAL. Datu Tongig Mansumuy-at says the classroom in Sitio Nalubas, Barangay Palma Gil is already being used by their children, even as construction is still ongoing. / Kontra-Kwento.net

Jumi and Datu Tongig

Josep Mambay-an, 25, leads a community-based organization that is actively putting up schools in Talaingod. Jumi, as he is fondly called, says he left Sitio Bolo when he was 17, lured by promises of free education and defense of ancestral land. That, he recalls, is what motivated him to join the New People’s Army. In the guerilla group, he became a team leader, a political guide and a platoon medic. Looking back, he admits he never expected that a journey meant to protect their land and rights would end with him displaced from that very same land, carrying an M16, and longing to go home.

By 2018, exhaustion set in. Their NPA unit had no medicine for the wounded, no food, and they were being constantly pursued by government troops. He surrendered under the Davao del Norte and the national government’s E-CLIP program and helped form the Ata Manobo Former Rebels Association last year, where he serves as vice president.

Datu Tongig Mansumuy-at, meanwhile, had a longer road behind him. Recruited at 19, he became an NPA medical officer. After two years, he decided to return home in 2004. In their community, he was recruited to become a Salugpungan para-teacher. As his politicization developed, he stopped teaching altogether to focus on organizing and campaigns. 

In 2013, he rejoined the NPA, being told by the Party committee in Talaingod that his public activism had made him a target of the military. But his second tour of duty in the NPA lasted only a year. He was asked to help the big activity of the evacuation of Lumad from Mindanao to the national capital, dubbed Lakbayan ng Pambansang Minorya, to protest against “militarization” and “attacks on the Lumad.” He shed his guerilla persona to become the spokesperson of PASAKA (Pasakkaday Salugpungan Kalimuddan), a Mindanao-wide Lumad alliance. But all the while he knew the real score: the armed struggle of the NPA and the open, aboveground Lumad struggle—”bisan gud ang [even the] Salugpungan schools–are all under the auspices of the CPP-NPA-NDFP’s "people's war.”

Josep Mambay-an and Datu Tongig, the two men currently helping change the educational landscape in Talaingod, Davao del Norte. / Kontra-Kwento.net

But by 2020, already more than five years displaced from their ancestral home, he felt the people’s war “had no clear horizon.” He saw that his tribe had grown weary, and he could no longer ignore their pleas to return to Talaingod. From 2021 to 2022, the disillusioned Ata Manobo returned to Talaingod. Datu Tongig personally surrendered to Gov. Edwin Jubahib on March 14, 2023. He was the last person at the UCCP Haran to surrender to authorities. “Gisigurado sa nako nga makauli ang tanan” (I made sure that everyone had returned home first”), he recalls.

When not attending to their farms, both Jumi and Datu Tongig now spend their days hauling construction materials, lobbying for more classrooms and teachers, and persuading fellow Ata Manobo to rebuild their classrooms.

The backstory

Their push makes more sense with the backstory of Salugpungan Ta’ Tanu Igkanogon Community Learning Center. In late 2019, Department of Education (DepEd) Region XI permanently shuttered 21 Salugpungan schools in Talaingod, citing exploitation allegations, unqualified teachers, and missing permits, among others.

Former CPP leaders in Southern Mindanao, ex-students, and parents later said that what began as a struggle for the right to education eventually turned into a battle ground to protect the CPP-NPA’s guerrilla bases in the region.

Many Ata Manobo families in Talaingod and in the nearby municipality of Kapalong, including Datu Tongig, joined the bakwit at the UCCP Haran Center in Davao City and even in Metro Manila. The CPP in Southern Mindanao helped set up bakwit schools in Davao, Cebu, and at UP Diliman. “So that the foreigners and sympathizers can visit and give money for the children who were displaced by the closure,” Datu Tongig said.

When police in Talaingod stopped a convoy led by former lawmakers Satur Ocampo and France Castro in 2018, accusing them of transporting minors, it splashed across front pages. In July 2024, a Tagum court found Ocampo, Castro, and 11 others guilty of child abuse related to that incident.

Hundreds of Talaingod Manobo take to the streets in July 16, 2024 to support the Tagum City Regional Trial Court’s decision over child abuse charges against the “Talaingod 18” and continue the struggle for free and quality education for the Lumad.

Datu Tongig was in UCCP Haran at the time, and he rushed to nearby Tagum City to find the children who had been turned over to the Provincial Social Work and Development Office. “Sala man gyud nila. Wala man mi kahibalo nga mao to ang ilang himuon [It was really their fault. We didn’t know about what they did],” he says. He adds that CPP cadres at the bakwit center helped mobilize the "humanitarian mission” to supposedly rescue the children and the teachers. When elders later learned the children were shuttled at night despite the risks, mistrust grew.

“Pero human na to. Ang problema kun mabalik ang Salugpungan, basin mabalik na pud kaniadto, maapektohan na pud ang mga bata, maundang na pud sa eskwela. [But that’s over. The problem is, if Salugpungan returns, the old ways might return too; the children could be affected again and stop schooling],” he muses. He says some of his former comrades still active in the legal movement are trying to revive the campaign to reopen the Salugpungan schools.

NO CLASS TODAY. During heavy rain, the Bunawan River in Sitio Angelo, Brgy. Dagohoy becomes impassable, making it extremely difficult for teachers and students to cross. / Photo courtesy of Kalinaw Southestern Mindanao

Roads, rain, and reality checks

Today, Jumi is helping finish DepEd-funded, community-built Last Mile Schools in Bagang, Badyatan 1, and his home sitio in Bolo. In Bagang, only the teachers’ staff house is unfinished, but classes have started.

“Ginapas-an lang namo ang materyales gikan sa ubos. [We carry the materials ourselves from the town]” he says. Villagers shoulder wood, cement, and GI sheets up steep paths to build classrooms—a full day’s work most of the time.

“Dapat magtinabangay ang komunidad kung unsay ihatag sa gobyerno [The community should work together to build on what government provides],” Datu Tungig adds.

But both Lumad leaders are frank about the gaps. “Ang dalan gyud maoy problema, samot na kun moulan. Gipangpamaulan mi pagpasulod sa materyales. [The road is really the problem, especially when it rains. We get muscle pains when we transport the materials],” says Datu Tongig. “Niaging bulan, nasakit ang maestro. Gikarga gyud namo tabok sapa. [Last month a teacher got sick. We literally carried the teacher across a river],” he adds.

The Department of Education funds the buildings, but labor is pure bayanihan. In Bagang, a new gravel road could cut travel by almost half a day, but when it rains, the road turns to sludge.

A joint report in late 2024 by Kalinaw Davao del Norte, Kalinaw Southeastern Mindanao, and the Ata Manobo Former Rebels Association, called “Keeping Our Word: Education as a Promise to the Lumad of Talaingod,” found that over half of the 21 affected sitios still lack DepEd schools, affecting at least 500 pupils. The replacement schools that had been built face teacher shortages, weak facilities, and no utilities, while remote, flood-prone terrain blocks access. 

The report also said that the Salugpungan schools normalized minors to be recruited into the NPA, underscoring exploitation of indigenous youth. It urged the recommendations of the Lumad communities in Talaingod to turn unused facilities into temporary classrooms, rehire para-teachers, and bring in culturally relevant curricula through a coordinated whole-of-government approach to rebuild trust and ensure steady, quality education.

ACKNOWLEDGING COMMITMENTS MADE. “Rebuilding the educational landscape in this geographically isolated and disadvantaged area is not a task for a single entity but a collective endeavor involving government agencies, private sectors, civil society, and the communities themselves,” reads the 2024 report Keeping Our Word: Education as a Promise to the Lumad of Talaingod / Courtesy of Kalinaw Southeastern Mindanao

Too trivial, too ordinary

“Mas maayo maablihan gihapon tong sa mga komunidad nga nasirado ang eskwelahan, labi na tong lagyo, para maka-eskwela gyud ang mga batang gagmay.[It would be better to reopen the schools in the communities where they’ve been closed, especially those in remote areas, so that our children can go to school],” Jumi maintains. 

“Pero,” Datu Tongig is quick to add, “kadtong sa gobyerno na, kay para dili na magkaproblema.” [But they should be government-run, so there won’t be any complications.]

Their hard turn from guerrillas to schoolbuilders may not be the stuff of legends in their oranda, the traditional long chant of the Manobo that recounts the history and struggles of their tribe. The challenges they confront seem too trivial, their deeds too ordinary to be deemed heroic. Roads that are still muddy. Budgets that are too thin. Old distrust that still linger. But every beam raised and every blackboard hung chips away at the past.

At 5 a.m. in Sitio Nalubas and Sitio Bagang, mothers boil kamote for kids who are walking the short path to an unfinished classroom. The trail is still steep, but it no longer leads to an NPA camp. And for Josep Mambay-an and Datu Tongig Mansumuy-at, that small change is proof that a community, armed with the spirit of collective work and stubborn hope, can write new lessons, carve a new history on a land once scarred by war. With reports from Ms. Rurelyn Bay-ao

We encourage everyone to help rebuild the classrooms of Manobo children in Talaingod, Davao del Norte. Please reach out to Kalinaw Southeastern Mindanao’s Facebook page @kalinawsemr, or their email address kalinawsemr@gmail.com.