MALACAÑANG on Friday, November 30, called on the sympathizers of former Bayan Muna Representative Satur Ocampo to avoid engaging in a "propaganda war" against the Duterte administration.
READ: Satur Ocampo, ACT Teachers rep arrested
Ocampo, who was arrested for alleged child trafficking, and his allies should instead wait for the competent court's final verdict on the former lawmaker, Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said in a statement.
"We advise Mr. Ocampo and his supporters to hold their horses," Panelo said.
"Rashly jumping into conclusions and engaging in propaganda war not only is unproductive but an attempt to resort to a trial by publicity against the government by those identified with the Left," he added.
Ocampo, the 79-year-old former peace negotiator for communist insurgents, was arrested Wednesday night, November 28, by a joint police and military team for allegedly trafficking minors in Talaingod, Davao del Norte.
The arrest came when Ocampo, ACT Teacher's party-list Representatives France Castro, and several others were allegedly transporting Lumad students in five vans.
Ocampo, Castro, and their companions are being held at the Talaingod municipal police, facing charges of child trafficking and kidnapping in relation to the Anti-Child Abuse Law and the Expanded Anti-Trafficking in Persons.
The leftist Makabayan bloc in the House of Representatives on Thursday, November 29, condemned the detention of Ocampo and Castro and called for their immediate release.
The group said the charges were fabricated and called the arrest “illegal.”
“It would be a blatant and outrageous lie to accuse progressive lawmaker and former public school teacher Castro, former solon and peace advocate Ocampo, as well as the administrators of the Lumad school as child traffickers,” the Makabayan bloc said in a statement.
It said exploitation or prostitution of others, or "other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labor or services, slavery, servitude or the removal or sale of organs" are the "complete opposite to the objectives of the NSM team."
Also on Thursday, the Gabriela party-list urged House Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to ensure that Ocampo and Castro are released as soon as possible.
Panelo, however, said Ocampo and the other accused still have 10 days to file their respective counter affidavits to refute the allegations hurled against them.
"Hence due process is being accorded them," the Palace official said.
"The rule of law must always prevail in a democracy. There is no room for short cuts that impair the legal processes. Let the constitutional processes proceed without fear nor favour," he added. (SunStar Philippines)