Activists: CA ruling on ‘Talaingod 13’ sets ‘dangerous precedent’
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY — Human rights activists have expressed grave concern over a recent Court of Appeals (CA) ruling that upheld the conviction of progressive politicians Satur Ocampo and France Castro, along with 11 Lumad educators, collectively known as the “Talaingod 13.”
In a statement, the Save Our Schools (SOS) Network warned that the ruling sets a dangerous precedent of criminalizing humanitarian actions.
The CA decision was dated November 27, but it was only received by the defendants on December 17. It affirmed a July 2024 ruling of the Tagum City Regional Trial Court, which found merit in allegations that the Talaingod 13 exploited the Lumad students of Salugpongan Ta Tanu Ingkanogan Community Learning Center.
The court sentenced them to a minimum of four years in prison.
READ: ‘Talaingod 13’ files notice of conviction appeal
The human rights defenders got involved in the case in 2018 following a solidarity mission amid intense military activities in Talaingod, Davao del Norte, and the push to have Salugpongan schools in Mindanao closed for supposed links to the communist rebel movement.
The SOS Network maintains that the group was performing a “humanitarian rescue operation” for students and teachers facing “mass school closures, forced displacement, and escalating militarization.”
The network contends that the court’s ruling, which the CA affirmed, had “recast this humanitarian act as a criminal offense” and disregarded the emergency conditions under which the educators were operating.
The SOS Network characterized the defendants not as criminals, but as “individuals who answered a calling to teach, care for, and defend indigenous children.”
“The ruling treated acts of protection, accompaniment, and vocation as criminal conduct,” the network said. “By erasing context, intent, and lived reality, the decision completed the logic of lawfare. Care was redefined as abuse.”
The network asserts that the Salugpongan schools became targets of a “whole-of-state assault” in 2018, involving forced closures and intimidation by paramilitary groups. The government’s National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict has previously branded the schools as rebel training centers.
Among those convicted alongside Ocampo and Castro is Meggie Nolasco, the executive director of the Salugpongan schools. The network highlighted that Nolasco and other volunteers, such as agriculturalist Maricel Andagkit and teacher Jenevive Paraba, were serving communities where “education was inseparable from land defense.”
Former Akbayan Party Rep. Walden Bello condemned the CA decision, which, in effect, affirmed the portrayal of the Talaingod 13 as “kidnappers” when they conducted “a rescue operation” in 2018.
“Answering the pleas of embattled indigenous students and teachers, they (Talaingod 13) rescued fourteen youths who were threatened and harassed by military forces. All of this happened amid the Duterte administration’s relentless onslaught against Lumads and Lumad schools due to alleged connections with the communist movement,” Bello recalled.
“Let us make no mistake: this decision is not about protecting children. It is about capitulating to the narratives and propaganda of state and non-state actors, which themselves have victimized young people,” Bello stressed.
“I call on the Supreme Court to correct this grave injustice and overturn the Court of Appeals’ decision. We must stand with those who defend the rights and dignity of the oppressed, not with the forces that persecute them,” Bello added. With a report from Ryan D. Rosauro/coa
