Military insists Ocampo, Castro ‘active rebels’

FIGHTING BACK ACT Teachers Rep. France Castro (left) says the decision to file counter charges against the police and military officers who detained her, former Bayan Rep. Satur Ocampo (right) and 16 others in Talaingod, Davao del Norte province, is “definitive.” NIÑO JESUS ORBETA

“If one walks like a duck, acts like a duck, quacks like a duck and has the mindset and inclination of a duck, what else could it be but a duck?”

Brig. Gen. Edgard Arevalo, Armed Forces of the Philippines spokesperson, made this remark at a press conference on Wednesday as he backed the stand of AFP chief Gen. Carlito Galvez Jr. that former Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo and ACT Teachers Rep. France Castro were communist insurgents.

Galvez earlier said that Ocampo and Castro were “active members” of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its military wing, the New People’s Army (NPA).

Charges vs. Galvez

The AFP chief also said he was not worried that party-list lawmakers had threatened to file charges against him for describing Ocampo and Castro as CPP-NPA members.

“If there is anything they (Ocampo and Castro) must be afraid of, it is not their so-called ‘red-tagging’ by the AFP. It is the cases legally and validly filed against them and the mounting evidence against their infamous version of ‘rescue,’” Arevalo said.

He was referring to the transportation of 14 minors by Ocampo and Castro’s group from Talaingod, Davao del Norte, without parental consent and in the dead of night, which Arevalo described as having “all the trappings of kidnapping.” —Jeannette I. Andrade