Conviction of Castro, Ocampo ‘substantial victory’ for IPs – NTF-Elcac

Satur Ocampo and France Castro (Photo from the House of Representatives Facebook page.)

MANILA, Philippines — The court’s ruling convicting ACT Teachers party-list Rep. France Castro and former Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Satur Ocampo of child abuse involving lumad students is a “substantial victory” for children and the Indigenous Peoples, an official of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-Elcac) said on Wednesday.

NTF-Elcac Executive Director Ernesto Torres Jr. also said the Tagum City Regional Trial Court’s (RTC) “verdict reaffirms” the task force’s “dedication to protecting [children] from exploitation and harm.”

The RTC convicted Ocampo, Castro, and 11 others for violation of Republic Act No. 7610, or the Special Protection of Children Against Abuse, Exploitation, and Discrimination Act.

The court sentenced them to four to six years in prison and ordered them to pay P10,000 civil indemnity and P10,000 moral damages to each of the 14 minors.

The case stemmed from an incident on Nov. 28, 2018, when the lumad school Salugpungan Ta’Tanu Igkanogon Community Learning Center in Barangay Palma Gil, Talaingod town was shut down by tribal leaders upon orders by the military.

The teachers left the area, bringing with them 14 lumad students. They were fetched in a van by the group of Castro and Ocampo in another sitio after they walked in the dark for three hours.

Ocampo and Castro were part of a mission in Tagum City, when they received reports that teachers and students of the Salugpungan school were allegedly being harassed by an armed paramilitary group called “Alamara.”

READ: Satur Ocampo, France Castro guilty of child abuse – Tagum City court

Torres claimed that the school was teaching lumad learners to rebel against the government.

“It was established for the purpose of teaching IP children to read, write, and do some arithmetic. However, there is deception in its establishment because the main purpose of CTGs (communist-terrorist groups) that time is to have a facility where they can radicalize indigenous children as early as Grade 1 until they become teenagers,” he said during a media briefing.

“They were taught how to monitor the movement of our security forces. They were taught how to go against the government, do rallies here and there, and to forage for the CPP-NPA (Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army),” he added.

In 2019, the Department of Education (DepEd) ordered the closure of 55 schools managed by the Salugpongan Ta’Tanu Igkanogon Community Learning Center, according to a report by former National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon. The schools were accused of being communist rebel fronts.

The group Save our Schools Network decried the decision, saying that the DepEd has “reduced itself as a stamp-pad for the military who had been targeting lumad schools in Mindanao.”

ACT Teachers and Bayan Muna also denied allegations that they have ties with the CPP-NPA.

READ: DepEd heeds Esperon report, suspends 55 ‘lumad’ schools

However, Torres claimed that Castro and Ocampo were in the area because they “wanted to salvage whatever is left.”

“The impact of this is increased awareness among our citizens, not just in Davao region, but across the country, that there are such schools that are being hubs of NPA recruitment,” he added in Filipino.

In a joint statement, Ocampo and Castro denounced the decision as “unacceptable and unjust.”

“Our resolve is strong and we feel that this will be dismissed at the end of the road. And we will face this, we will not hide, or evade our laws and our justice system. We are ready to face the people and say we really did nothing wrong. No child abuse. We did not do these allegations because our advocacy is for the education of the youth and lumad children,” Castro said in an interview with reporters on Monday.