By ANNE MARXZE D. UMIL
Bulatlat.com
MANILA – A public school teachers’ group denounced the filing of ethics complaint against House Deputy Minority Leader and ACT Teachers Party-list Rep. France Castro.
The complaint was filed by a group calling themselves as Ata-Manobo Tribal Council of Elders together with alleged leaders of a certain Talaingod Political Structure on Dec. 10 before the House Committee on Ethics and Privileges.
According to a news report, the group filed the complaint citing the conviction of Castro and the rest of Talaingod 13 by the Tagum Regional Trial Court for supposed violations of RA 7610. An appeal has been filed.
In a statement, ACT Chairperson Vladimer Quetua said the complaint filed “is clearly another attempt to stir trouble and divert attention away from Vice President Sara Duterte’s misuse of public funds, whether in the Office of the Vice President or Department of Education.”
“It is also despicable how the Duterte camp is using Indigenous Lumads to implicate Teacher France, despite the fact that it was the Duterte regime, in collusion with paramilitary forces and the military, that truly endangered, harassed, and abused the Lumad youth,” he added.
It was in 2018 when Castro along with Bayan Muna President Satur Ocampo and other groups rescued the Lumad teachers and students in the far-flung area of Talaingod in Davao del Norte.
Read: ‘Clear miscarriage of justice’ | Court convicts activists, rights workers over child-trafficking case
Read: Context of Talaingod incident | The decades-old struggle of Lumad in Pantaron Mountain Range for ancestral land, right to self-determination
Quetta said the initial unjust court decision by the Tagum RTC is baseless, erroneous and unjust.
“The court turned a blind eye to the documented military and paramilitary violence against Lumad schools and communities that necessitated the National Solidarity Mission in the first place. Instead, it used the three-hour walk of children at night and an absurd ‘conspiracy’ theory to pin down the Talaingod 13 on trumped-up charges of child abuse,” Quetua explained.
Castro meanwhile said the complaint is pure harassment.
“We know the people behind these harassment suits. They are the same individuals being exposed as gross human rights violators and plunderers of the people’s money,” Castro, who is aspiring for a Senate seat, said in a statement.
She added that the complaint is a reprisal and to cover the wrongdoings of government officials who committed crimes against the people.
“The killings under Duterte’s fake drug war were exposed too much in the quad committee hearing, and the misappropriation of confidential funds by VP Duterte is now facing impeachment, while the old Duterte is also dealing with the International Criminal Court (ICC). That’s why they are now pressuring their fellow red-taggers in the NTF-ELCAC to harass people like us who exposed their wrongdoings,” Castro said.
Castro also said that the case against her, Ocampo and other co-accused is still under appeal therefore there is no final verdict yet.
“These fabricated charges are meant to intimidate and harass those who stand in solidarity with oppressed communities. But we are undeterred. We will continue to fight for justice and accountability,” she said.
Ocampo, meanwhile, believes that “These harassment suits are desperate attempts to divert attention from the atrocities committed by the government against indigenous peoples. The Talaingod 13 are educators and advocates, not criminals. They have been targeted because they challenge the state’s complicity in land grabbing and environmental destruction.”
Quetua reiterated that instead the government should act on the dismantling of NTF-ELCAC.
“Until the NTF-ELCAC is dismantled, it will continue with its goal of sowing harm against progressive groups, individuals, and the people who resist. Its track record is clear in terms of repression and the spread of disinformation,” Quetua said. (RTS, RVO)
