POLICE personnel and officials of the Department of Social Welfare and Development on Monday entered the Talamban campus of the University of San Carlos in Cebu supposedly to rescue Lumad minors.

A video posted by The Freeman showed students and teachers of the Lumad Bakwit School being apprehended by members of the Police Regional Office 7.

The USC-TC said it did not receive any notice about the “rescue operations.”

The Save our Schools Network said in a statement that 21 students were taken away in the operation, along with two teachers and two elders.

Since March 2020, the students and teachers of LBS have taken up residence in the campus because of militarization in their areas.

The videos and pictures showed Lumad children screaming in a classroom as they were forced out by men in uniform.

“Their parents were supposedly forced and fetched out of their community in Davao del Norte by the military and the local government to justify this blatant attack,” SOS said.

The government has long accused the Lumad schools of recruiting and training communist rebels, an allegation that SOS denied.

SOS spokesperson Ruis Valle lambasted the rescue operation, describing it as an “overkill.”

“This is what the PNP’s ‘rescue operation’ looks like. Manhandling, handcuffing and mauling those they claim they are rescuing, the Lumad,” Valle said.

“What they did this morning in Cebu isn’t new. They are used to this. Threatening parents and forcing them to either be recruited to paramilitary or to be branded as rebel surrenderees. Threatening evacuees and silencing them even in evacuation centers,” he added.

The Kabataan Partylist also condemned the operation.

“Ngayon, nakararanas na naman sila ng banta sa seguridad at atake sa mismong lugar kung saan sila naghanap ng ibayong santuwaryo, at nagsisikap makapagpatuloy ng pag-aaral,” the group said.

“Ang mga paaralan ay dapat ligtas na lugar para sa mga kabataan at guro at malayo sa karahasan at panghihimasok ng mga pulis at militar,” it added.

Police Brig. Gen. Brandi Usana, PNP spokesman, insisted that the students were rescued and slammed the “slanted and malicious” reports on the raid by AlterMidya.

Usana added that the raid “can be a big blow to the deceptive handiwork of the Communist Terrorist Group members” allegedly recruiting minors as future armed combatants.