STATEMENT
July 26, 2024
The Council for People’s Development and Governance condemns the Tagum Regional Court’s decision on the 2018 Talaingod solidarity mission case.
ACT Teachers Partylist Rep. France Castro, former Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo, and 12 lumad teachers, known as the Talaingod 18, were arrested on absurd trumped-up charges “human trafficking” while helping Lumad students affected by militarization.
Four pastors charged were acquitted but Ocampo, Castro, and the others now face child abuse charges under Sec. 10(a) of R.A. NO. 7610.
This is a clear case of wrongful conviction and human rights violations. It is only the latest example of laws being weaponized against human rights defenders and NGOs providing aid to communities affected by militarization and state violence.
The students are from Lumad communities displaced from their ancestral lands in Pantaron Range, Talaingod, Davao del Norte by state and corporate aggression. Among others, this included the closure of 216 Lumad schools, supported by then-Mayor Sara Duterte and intensified by the NTF-ELCAC.
The unjust conviction attacks the work of human rights defenders and undermines their efforts to uphold economic, social, and cultural rights.
We stand in solidarity with Castro, Ocampo, and the convicted teachers, call on the Commission on Human Rights to denounce the injustice, and urge the Supreme Court to reverse the decision.
We call on the UN, international community, and civil society organizations to hold the government accountable. We also urge incoming Department of Education Secretary Jose “Sonny” Angara to support the recall of the conviction and uphold the Lumad’s right to self-determination through their own schools.
Eradicating poverty and inequality requires a just system that does not discriminate against vulnerable sectors and human rights defenders.#eof#