KARAPATAN denounces moves by the Duterte camp seeking the expulsion of ACT Teachers Partylist Rep. France Castro from the House of Representatives on the basis of a contrived ethics complaint. KARAPATAN views the ethics case against Rep. Castro as a desperate attempt by the Dutertes to deflect public attention from the real issue of Sara Duterte’s gross misappropriation of her Confidential and Intelligence Funds (CIF).
The ethics complaint cites the unjust decision of a regional trial court judge in Mindanao for a trumped-up case of child abuse. The case stems from Castro’s participation in a rescue and solidarity mission in Talaingod, Davao del Norte in November 2018 where she joined former Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo, four ecumenical leaders from the United Church of Christ in the Philippine and the United Methodist Church in responding to calls from teachers and students of the Salugpongan Ta’Tanu Igkanogon Community Learning Center, Inc. and the Community Technical College of Southeastern Mindanao (CTCSM).
Students, teachers and staff of these schools had been suffering intense harassment in the hands of the 56th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army (IBPA) and the Alamara paramilitary group, encouraged by hostile pronouncements from then Pres. Rodrigo Duterte, who publicly called for the bombing of the places of learning, branding them as “NPA schools.”
The harassment had stepped up in October 2018 when the Alamara began blocking the supply of food and school supplies, which culminated in the padlocking of the schools on November 28. The teachers, students and staff who hail from far-flung areas and lived in dormitories provided by the schools had nowhere to go and were in constant danger from the Alamara. They made urgent calls for rescue, which the humanitarian mission responded to. The group had to rescue the Lumad students, teachers and staff and bring them to safety. Ironically, in the military and the regional trial court’s twisted logic, this humanitarian act constituted “child abuse.”
The Duterte regime had the gall to charge Castro, Ocampo and the rest of the solidarity mission with acts of child abuse when it was the regime that had, in fact, gained notoriety for its constant attacks on the rights of Lumad children. At the time, the Talaingod schools were forcibly shut down, Save Our Schools Network had already documented at least 535 cases of attacks on Lumad schools, including military encampments in schools, torture, threats and harassment, denial of humanitarian aid, illegal arrests, red-tagging, forced surrenders and destruction or forcible closures of schools. The vast majority of the attacks on Lumad schools occurred when martial law was declared in Mindanao. This wave of terror led to the closure of 56 Lumad schools all over the island, depriving over 2,000 Lumad students of their right to education.
Under the Marcos Jr. regime, Lumad children continue to be deprived of these schools that taught them to defend and cherish their land and culture. Marcos Jr. faithfully implements the same militarist and anti-people policies that have had devastating consequences on the Lumad children’s rights and welfare.
Such policies also pave the way for the entry of gigantic foreign mining companies into Lumad areas in Mindanao, which are rich in minerals like lead, zinc, iron ore, copper, chromite, magnetite and gold. Mindanao reputedly holds half of the country’s entire gold reserves. No wonder military and paramilitary groups have been protecting big mining companies, to the detriment of Lumad interests.
It is the Duterte and Marcos Jr. regimes that are guilty of child abuse and child endangerment.
But now that Rep. Castro has led moves in the House to cite Sara Duterte’s chief of staff in contempt for refusing to cooperate with congressional investigations into the vice president’s misuse of her CIF, the Duterte camp is trying to turn the tables on Rep. France Castro by harping on her unjust conviction and citing her for alleged unethical conduct, even if her questionable conviction by the lower court is still on appeal and there has been no final judgment yet on her case.
These attacks on Rep. Castro are not only against her person but are attacks against her advocacies and the oppressed and marginalized sectors whose interests she advances. To defend her would be to take the cudgels for the rights and welfare of the exploited and oppressed against attacks by state forces.