MANILA, Philippines — A school for indigenous people on Saturday criticized President Rodrigo Duterte for offering money to Lumads to kill members of the New People’s Army.

The Alternative Learning Center for Agricultural and Livelihood Development stressed that killing in exchange for money is not part of their culture as indigenous peoples.

“The underlying principle of our struggle to defend the land of our ancestors can never be bought,” Alcadev said in a statement posted on its Facebook account.

Alcadev, a community-based Lumad school for the indigenous youth in Caraga Region, cited that several of their leaders have been killed by the military and they would never do the same. The group said the killings only brought them grief.

For the Lumad school, all they’ve ever asked for is justice.

“To even ask us to kill, as if killing is the way to peace in our communities, shows ignorance of our plight and our struggle…We've never asked you to kill anyone; all we've ever asked for is justice,” Alcadev said.

“Members of the military and paramilitary, murderers that they are, never hesitated to kill those that stood in their way as they drove us away from our ancestral lands and paved the way for our people's demise. We refuse to do the same,” it added.

Last Friday, Duterte offered to train the Lumads to become militiamen of the Citizen Armed Forces Geographical Unit and said he would ask them to go after NPA rebels. He said the indigenous group would be provided with firearms.

Duterte added that the Lumads would be given a P20,000 reward for every rebel killed.

Prior to this offer, Duterte, last Wednesday, threatened to kill five rebels for every soldier killed by the NPA in response to Communist Party of the Philippines founding chair Jose Maria Sison’s statement that it has the capacity to kill one soldier of the Armed Forces of the Philippines daily.

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