Castro faces jail time for child abuse

ACT Teachers Partylist Rep. France Castro has been sentenced to jail for up to six years by a Davao court for committing child abuse in 2018.

In a decision handed down by the Tagum Regional Trial Court Branch 2, Castro was found guilty of violating Section 10(a) of Republic Act 7610 or the Special Protection of Children Against Abuse, Exploitation, and Discrimination Act alongside former Bayan Muna Partylist Rep. Satur Ocampo, and 11 others.

The 11 comprised administrators and teachers of the Salugpungan Ta' Tanu Igkanogon Community Learning Center and two from the ACT or the Alliance of Concerned Teachers.

They were ordered to jointly and severally pay P10,000 each of the 14 minors as civil indemnity and another P10,000 as moral damages.

The damages come with a 6 percent annual interest from the finality of the decision until full payment.

The case pertains to the alleged illegal transport of 14 Lumad minors, who were then students of Salugpungan Ta Tanu Ingkanogan Community Learning Center Inc. in Talaingod, Davao del Norte, in November 2018. 

This happened after a solidarity mission joined by Castro and Ocampo along with other militant leaders supposedly to give aid such as school supplies and goods to teachers and students in the area purportedly subject of harassment, threat, and forcible closure of their Lumad schools by members of the armed paramilitary group called Alamara.

Investigators said Castro and Ocampo and their co-accused unlawfully kept the minors in their company and transported them on board five passenger vans, "exposing the said same to condition prejudicial to their development."

In convicting Castro, Ocampo, and 11 others, the Tagum court said the prosecution has established proof beyond reasonable doubt that they "indeed committed acts detrimental to the safety and well-being of the minor Lumad learners."

This was by "transporting them on foot in the evening for three hours, more or less, on a remote, dark and unsecured road without the assistance and presence of the law enforcement, any government agency, or written permission and consent of the minor's parents and exposing the said minors to danger and hazards by traveling in the middle of the night," the court said.

Castro and Ocampo lamented that their conviction is "unacceptable and unjust" taking into consideration that the persons who are responsible for the forcible closure of the Lumad schools "have never been investigated."

"This wrongful conviction speaks of the continuing persecution of those who are helping and advocating for the rights of Lumad children and the persistent attacks on Lumad schools and communities," they said in a joint statement.

They also warned they would challenge the Tagum court's decision "in all venues possible."

"We remain steadfast in our support for the indigenous schools and communities who continue to bear the brunt of the fascist attacks by the Marcos regime," the statement read.

"We persist in our call that those who ordered and orchestrated the attacks against the Lumad schools, specifically former President Rodrigo Duterte and the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict, and endangered the lives of indigenous children must be brought to justice."

Makabayan bloc -- Gabriela and Kabataan Partylists -- vehemently condemned the "trumped up charges" against their peers.

"This conviction is a blatant attack on those who stand in solidarity with indigenous communities and their right to education," Gabriela Rep. Arlene Brosas stressed.

Meanwhile, Kabataan Rep. Raoul Manuel suspects that former president Rodrigo Duterte, who had publicly linked Castro to the communist armed movement, had a hand in the case.

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"Rep. Castro led the charge to hold accountable the Dutertes for the drug war, daughter Sara for her confidential funds racket, and Quiboloy for being an internationally wanted child sex trafficker. This is sweet revenge for them," he said.