PROGRESSIVE advocacy groups have assailed a local court in Tagum City for its “unjust verdict” after it convicted two lawmakers and 11 others for violating the country’s Special Protection of Children Against Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination Act on July 15, 2024.
The accused were teachers’ group congresswoman France Castro, long-time activist leader and former Bayan Muna congressman Satur Ocampo, and 11 other indigenous teachers and individuals.
The accused individuals reportedly initiated a “national solidarity and fact-finding mission” on November 28, 2018 in Talaingod, Davao del Norte as their response to the call from a group of indigenous children “who had been repeatedly threatened and harassed by military and paramilitary forces who even locked them out of their schools.”
Cristina Palabay, secretary-general of rights group Karapatan, criticized the verdict, saying it “shows that even courts of law are increasingly being weaponized against human rights defenders.”
“We denounce this court ruling, as the double standard in our justice system remains so stark, especially when the moneyed and powerful are acquitted while those who advocate for the rights of the Lumad (indigenous) and other vulnerable sectors of society are repeatedly violated,” Palabay told Sunstar Philippines on July 15.
Judge Jimmy Boco of Tagum City Regional Trial Court, Branch 2 sentenced Castro, Ocampo, and 11 others to jail terms of four to six years and ordered them to pay jointly and severally a total of P20,000 in civil and moral damages to each of the victims.
"Notably, the court opines that the accused had no valid justification nor authority to take the fourteen minor students out of Dulyan campus," the judge said of his decision dated July 3, 2023.
Meanwhile, National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-Elcac) Executive Director Ernesto Torres Jr. expressed “profound appreciation for the justice system following the landmark decision.”
“Justice has been served. The wheels of justice may grind slowly but in the end, justice and truth will prevail,” said Torres in a statement on July 15.
"This case sends a clear message to anyone who tries to corrupt our children, teaching them false ideas with the end goal of sowing discord and divide, that no one is above the law," added the NTF-Elcac Legal Cooperation Cluster chief, Assistant Solicitor General Angelita Miranda added.
According to the NTF-Elcac, the court’s verdict revealed the truth.
"Castro and Ocampo maintain that what they did is a ‘rescue mission.’ Today’s verdict debunked their lie…Today’s verdict finally held them accountable," the government’s anti-insurgency group said.
As this developed, Health Action for Human Rights and Health Alliance for Democracy group also condemned the conviction.
“Yet, those responsible for the attacks against the Lumads, their displacement from the ancestral lands and closure of Lumad schools were never investigated by the state,” the group said in a report from Catholic news site UCA News.
In a joint statement, Ocampo and Castro called the judge’s decision a “clear miscarriage of justice,” “unacceptable” and “wrongful,” adding that they would question the verdict "in all venues possible." (Ronald O. Reyes/SunStar Philippines)