Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on Monday urged the authorities to treat ACT Teachers Party-list Rep. France Castro and former congressman Satur Ocampo with dignity and respect, after the two were arrested on Nov. 28 in Davao del Norte.
“They entitled to a certain level of dignified and respectful treatment in situations such as this, particularly since our judicial system is based upon the principle of presumption of innocence,” Arroyo said in a statement. “This is my position regarding any member of the House, regardless of political or ideological alignment.”
“At the same time the House will always uphold the law and its processes. I understand that they have been given 10 days to file their counter affidavits in order to refute the charges against them, and I would urge a speedy resolution of the matter within the framework of our judicial system,” she said.
“I have long known former Rep. Satur Ocampo personally, and I pray that he, Rep. Castro and their co-respondents are well and will continue to be so until this matter is resolved.”
Arroyo said she learned of their arrest through Gabriela Reps. Arlene Brosas and Emmi de Jesus, who called on her to look into their situation.
The leftist Makabayan bloc in the House said they would file charges against Armed Forces chief Gen. Carlito Galvez Jr. for accusing Castro of being a member of the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed wing, the New People’s Army.
“We will file a case sa Ombudsman against the military,” Anakpawis Party-list Rep. Ariel Casilao, a member of the bloc, said at a news conference.
“This very dangerous and baseless statement,” he added.
Casilao said Galvez was quoted as saying that Ocampo was as a “propagandist” of the CPP-NPA, and that the Salugpongan Tatanu Igkanugon Community Learning Center in Talaingod, Davao del Norte, and the Alternative Learning Center for Agriculture Livelihood Development are “breeding grounds” of the NPA.
Castro denied she is an NPA member.
Castro, Ocampo, and 16 others have been charged with kidnapping and human trafficking for allegedly taking custody of minors during their solidarity mission in Talaingod, Davao del Norte, on the evening of Nov. 28.
All of them were released from detention on Saturday night after they each posted P80,000 bail for their charges.
Philippine National Police chief Oscar Albayalde rejected a challenge from a legislator that he visit the Lumad school that the military and police say is a communist breeding ground.
“There’s no need to visit them because when you get there, they’ll be teaching something else,” he said in Filipino. “That’s not what our IPs (indigenous people) say. We believe them. You could just imagine, they were exploited there and their minds were poisoned. Even their children.”
Earlier, Castro dared Abayalde and the police to visit Lumad schools to check on their condition.
But Albayalde said he had no interest in visiting a Lumad school, where he said IP students were being brainwashed by the communists.
“What they are teaching is how to rally and other ways to help the [communist] movement,” he added.
Albayalde rejected suggestions that Castro and Ocampo were arrested on trumped-up charges.
“We cannot fabricate charges because that won’t stand in court. We can never fabricate charges. If there is no complainant, there are no charges,” he said, citing the complaint filed by parents and relatives of the children.
Castro said Albayalde’s refusal to visit Lumad schools reflects his ignorance.
Ocampo, meanwhile, denied allegations that the communists were recruiting minors through the Lumad schools.
In an interview with ANC Headstart, Ocampo said the communists had “a rule against recruiting minors.”
“The NPA operates in the hinterlands. It so happens that most if not all of the communities of the Lumads are in the hinterlands, so they become battleground areas. It is not surprising that the NPA has its main objective of organizing the people in the struggle for their own welfare,” he said.
“It doesn’t deny that there are Lumads who joined the NPA but they are not minors,” he added.
The military, on the other hand, was recruiting from the community for its paramilitary forces.
“The consequence is that the people are being divided and fighting among themselves,” he said.
Also on Monday, the Palace played down as a “personal sentiment” Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr.’s statement that the kidnapping and trafficking charges against Ocampo were “bullsh*t.”
Locsin vouched for Ocampo, stressing that the latter has protected him in Congress against warrants of arrest.
“We view the comment of SFA Locsin as a personal sentiment given the fact that he and former Congressman Satur Ocampo are friends and were both together in Congress. It is not reflective of the view of the administration,” Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo said in a Palace press briefing Monday.
