Bulatlat News
By ANNE MARXZE D. UMIL
Bulatlat.com
MANILA – A global organization of teachers and international NGOs are calling for the immediate overturn of the Tagum court decision against ACT Teachers Party-list Rep. France Castro, former Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo and others who were wrongfully convicted of child abuse charges.
“France Castro is one of the greatest leaders I have ever had the privilege to know. The fact that she would be convicted for working to save the lives of targeted teachers and students from a minority of community is an absolute outrage and should be condemned by any and all who believe in the universality of human rights,” said Education International’s General Secretary David Edwards.
Education International is a global organization of teachers and education support personnel, of which the Alliance of Concerned Teachers-Philippines is a member.
A group of legislators from Asian countries, ASEAN Parliament for Human Rights, also stand in solidarity with Castro and 12 others convicted over the Talaingod incident. Its chairperson Mercy Chriesty Barends said in a statement, “We are appalled that the court has decided to convict Rep. France Castro and 12 others of the ‘Talaingod 18’ on charges of child abuse, merely for attempting to rescue schoolchildren from a dangerous situation. It is an absurd decision that has no basis in reality.”
Barends added that the “Talaingod 18 should be commended for their bravery, not punished for it.”
Barends said that the basis for the court’s decision is flimsy. She urged the Philippine authorities to grant bail to Castro and others and that they should not be subjected to even one day of unjust detention.
“We stand in solidarity with Rep. France Castro and her fellow human rights defenders and we further call on the higher courts to recognize the ridiculousness of this case and duly overturn this preposterous conviction,” Barends said.
On July 15, acting presiding judge Jimmy Boco of the Tagum City Regional Trial Court Branch 2 convicted Castro, Ocampo and the 11 others over trumped up child abuse charges, following their rescue of Lumad students and teachers who were facing a series of military harassment back in 2018.
Meanwhile, the University of the Philippines Office of the Faculty Regent described the conviction of Castro, Ocampo and others as “shameful and clearly aimed to harass and discredit progressive lawmakers, educators and organizations.”
UP Faculty Regent Carl Marc Ramota said that a cursory look at the case would reveal that the Talaingod 18 were providing humanitarian aid and to rescue Lumad students.
“The human rights defenders unjustly convicted by the Tagum court were part of a National Solidarity Mission that responded to the threats against the Lumad community in Talaingod. They were doing invaluable service to the Lumad community when they were apprehended, harassed and slapped with ridiculous, trumped up charges,” Ramota said in a statement.
For former Senator Leila De Lima, the court’s decision should be reviewed and reversed on appeal.
The Quezon City and the Manila Public School Teachers Association also denounced the decision of the Tagum court.
“The participation of the Talaingod 18 in the humanitarian mission was for the Lumad children who were victims of attack and is justifiable for its position to stand for the right to education for all, including for the national minorities. This trumped-up case reveals the systematic oppression by the state on the rights of indigenous peoples to their ancestral domain, and even for their basic rights starting with the closure of 215 Lumad schools in 2020, together with the relentless military harassment and the indiscriminate bombing of communities,” the Quezon City School Teachers Association said in a statement in Filipino.
‘No one is above the law?’
Karapatan on the other hand assailed National Security Adviser Eduardo Año’s statement saying that the Tagum court’s conviction shows that no one is above the law.
“For someone who has made it his mission to distort the letter and spirit of the law and weaponize it to persecute human rights defenders, it is the height of absurdity for National Security Adviser Eduardo Año to claim that the unjust conviction of former Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo, ACT Partylist Rep. France Castro and eleven others for alleged ‘child abuse’ shows that ‘no one is above the law,’” said Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay in a statement.
She stressed, “Año and his ilk have been behind the wave of unjust arrests and detention of hundreds of activists and human rights defenders through the use of spurious warrants, planted evidence, perjured testimonies of so-called witnesses, and the filing of trumped-up cases.”
“To hear him and the Legal Cooperation Cluster of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (LCC NTF-ELCAC) hail the very same laws and judicial processes they have long been making a mockery of is cringe-worthy,” she added.
Palabay also stressed that Año has no right to stand in judgment against human rights defenders who have been consistent in their advocacy for the rights and welfare of the Lumad people. She added that Año is the instigator and implementor of policies that are hostile to Lumad schools and the Lumad children’s right to education.
Año has been implicated in human rights violations during his service in the military. He was tagged in the enforced disappearance of activist Jonas Burgos in 2007. He also headed the 10th Infantry Division which was implicated in the Pacquibato massacre in June 2015.
During the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte, Año served as Armed Forces of the Philippines chief of staff and later as secretary of the Department of Interior and Local Government. (RTS, JJE, RVO) 
