JAKARTA”•Authorities in the Philippines must immediately drop the trumped-up “kidnapping” and “human trafficking” charges against a sitting congresswoman and 17 other people who were trying to assist the indigenous communities being harassed by a paramilitary group, the ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights said Sunday.
Rep. France Castro, a member of APHR, was arrested on Nov. 29 after a convoy she was traveling in was stopped at a military checkpoint outside Talaingod town in Davao del Norte.
The convoy was part of a so-called National Solidarity Mission which had traveled to the region to provide humanitarian aid to a school of children belonging to the indigenous Lumad community.
“These baseless charges against Congresswoman France Castro and 17 other people appear to be purely politically motivated and must be dropped immediately,” said APHR Chairman Charles Santiago, a member of the Malaysian Parliament.
“Instead of targeting those trying to assist beleaguered indigenous communities, the Philippine authorities should do much more to end the abuse by paramilitary groups in Mindanao.”
Castro made his statement even as a Commission on Human Rights official on Sunday said due process in making arrests must be observed and should equally apply to human rights defenders.
Human Rights commissioner Gwendolyn Pimentel-Gana made the remark in an interview on Super Radyo dzBB, referring to the arrest of former lawmaker Satur Ocampo, Castro and 16 others in Davao del Norte recently.
“Dapat yung due process is being observed. Siyempre yung right nila ni Ka Satur at kanyang mga kasama, in terms of yung pagkaka-incarcerate sa kanila, dapat tuparin,” she said.
The camp of Satur Ocampo will file counter charges against the police and military officers involved in their alleged harassment and detention.
Police claim that the members of the NSM were charged and detained because they had illegally transported 14 Lumad students from the school without their parents’ consent.
The NSM, however, says they were attempting to temporarily move the children to a safe shelter, since the school had suffered harassment by a local paramilitary group, that had forcibly closed the school and imposed a blockade on food entering the community. The delegation says teachers and students had felt threatened by the paramilitary group’s presence and asked for their help to leave the area.
Apart from Frances Castro, the 18 people eventually charged on Nov. 30 include Ocampo, four Protestant ministers and teachers from the school.
The 18 have been charged under the Expanded Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2012 and the Special Protection of Children Against Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination Act for “kidnapping and failure to return a minor.” They were released on bail late on Dec. 1 but the investigation against them is ongoing.
Paramilitary groups in the Mindanao region have a track record of human rights abuses. In 2015, Human Rights Watch documented how paramilitary groups in the region committed violence against indigenous communities, including harassing students at tribal schools that they claim indoctrinate students in the communist ideology.
Since President Rodrigo Duterte took office in 2016, his administration has allegedly stepped up judicial harassment of opposition lawmakers. Two Senators, Leila de Lima and Antonio Trillanes, have been arrested on alleged trumped-up criminal charges. Leila de Lima has languished in prison awaiting trial since February 2017, while Antonio Trillanes was released on bail after his brief arrest in September 2018.
In February 2018, Carlos Isagani Zarate also faced charges including conducting a rally without a permit under Section 13(a) of the Public Assembly Act after he staged a protest against the visit of US President Donald Trump to the Philippines the year before.