Davao court convicts leftist Senate bets of child abuse over Lumad ‘rescue’

The case involves a long-running struggle of Lumads to put up and operate schools, which were virtually wiped out in former President Duterte's crackdown

MANILA, Philippines – A court in Tagum City, Davao del Norte has convicted 13 people of child abuse, including two prominent leaders of the leftist Makabayan bloc, over a 2018 incident that the Philippine Army is calling an abduction of minors but which human rights groups are claiming to be a rescue of teachers and Lumad students from military harassment.

Tagum City Regional Trial Court Branch 2 Judge Jimmy Boco convicted 13 human rights defenders of violation of Section 10(a) of Republic Act 7610 or child abuse, and sentenced them to a minimum 4 years to a maximum 6 years in prison. It is a bailable offense so all 13 can enjoy freedom while they appeal.

The verdict was known to the defendants on Monday, but Judge Boco’s decision was dated July 3.

“This is a clear miscarriage of justice, and we will strongly question this decision in all venues possible,” said ACT Teachers Party Representative France Castro and former Bayan Muna Party Representative Satur Ocampo, two of the convicted, in a joint statement on Monday, July 15.

Castro has just been announced as the first confirmed bet of the Makabayan coalition for the 2025 Senate elections. Makabayan said it will field a full slate for the midterm elections, but has yet to name everyone. Ocampo was part of the announcement on July 11.

The case

The case involves a long-running struggle of Lumads to put up and operate schools in their communities in Mindanao. Lumad schools have always grappled with problems of militarization, and sometimes, murder of their teachers and leaders. Lumads are Mindanao inhabitants who are neither Muslims nor Christians.

Former president Rodrigo Duterte was only halfway his 6-year term in 2019 when Lumad schools were virtually wiped out by closures in his home region in Davao.

One such school was located in Sitio Dulyan in Talaingod, part of the network of independently-run Salugpongan Ta’Tanu Igkanogon Community Learning Center, Incorporated (STTICLCI), which is perennially accused of radicalizing children to become part of the New People’s Army (NPA) of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). The network and its alliances insist that if they don’t put up these schools, education will not reach the far-flung communities.

According to the teachers of Lumad students, they started being harassed by paramilitary personnel at the start of November 2018, when closures were underway. Fearing for their safety, the students transferred their classes to the Sitio Dulyan campus. A follow-up security assessment was supposed to happen on November 27, 2018, but tensions escalated and majority of the students no longer showed up for class.

If the defendants are to be believed, the scenario was of crying and screaming children and parents, running away from gun-toting men. The community wanted to stay one more night, seeing it was already near dusk, but they said their pleas to the armed men “turned out to be futile.”

The events that ensued is what the court declared as constituting child abuse. The teachers and other community leaders decided the safest option was to evacuate that night – even though they were hungry, it was raining, and had no choice but to travel by foot.

Downtown, the rescue mission of their allies was already underway, preparing to meet them and rescue them using vehicles. Ocampo and Castro were part of this mission, as the presence of prominent figures serve as some form of insurance – and assurance – to such a risky operation.

The defendants narrated a daring rescue where their vehicles’ tires were pierced by a spike, men on board a motorcycle firing two shots as they repaired their tires on the road, and militarized checkpoints “blocking them for an hour.”

“The persons who are actually responsible for the forcible closure of the schools as well as the threats and harassment have never been investigated,” said Castro and Ocampo.

What the court said

In the version of the army and the police, they received a call from the parent of one minor that a group was being transported from Talaingod towards Compostela Valley. The convoy was intercepted, and the defendants could not produce legal documents that authorized them to transport the minors.

The prosecution presented witnesses from the local office of the Department of Education (DepEd) and the mandatory indigenous representative of the Local Government Unit (LGU) to testify that they were not aware of any such alleged rescue.

For Judge Boco, Section 10(a) of the law requires only three elements for there to be a crime of child abuse:

• That the victims are minor
• That the acts result in conditions prejudicial to the child’s development
• That the acts are punishable under the law

“Even the witness of the defense admitted that she experience difficulties in traversing the road from Sitio Dulyan,” said the 26-page decision.

“The acts of the accused not only exposed the children [to] harm or risk, but also placed them to the potential endangerment of their safety and well-being. Due to the acts of the accused, the children experience unnecessary risks and suffered from unsecured conditions,” said the court.

The court believed that if there was indeed a threat in the community, only the teachers were being asked to leave over the closure of the schools. “The tribal leaders only wanted the teachers to leave the school and the demand did not include the students,” said the court.

The executive director of the Salugpungan Schools, among those convicted, said that the presence of armed men in the community that night, and the closure of their school, was “a threat to the safety and well-being of the students.”

Two religious leaders, allies of the Save our Schools Network who were also asked to help with the rescue mission, were acquitted. Two others were also acquitted.

Long history of struggle

The situation is complicated even more because it is a clash of testimonies of people who are close to each other – parents, teachers, and community members. However, this complication is not new in the long history of Lumad schools in highly critical areas in Mindanao.

The same happened to Lumad students who had resettled in Cebu in March 2020 after being stranded by the pandemic lockdown. Police in 2021 claimed to “rescue” the students they said were being kept out of their wills, resulting in several arrests. The IP leaders who had accompanied the students were slapped with trafficking cases, but these cases were dismissed last month.

“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 (NTF-ELCAC), and endangered the lives of indigenous children must be brought to justice,” said Castro and Ocampo.

“This conviction perpetuates the cycle of state-sponsored violence and oppression. In fact, former president Rodrigo Duterte who ordered the closure of Lumad schools and bombing of Lumad communities in Mindanao during his presidency never had a day in court for his numerous crimes and violations of international humanitarian laws,” said peasant human rights network Tanggol Magsasaka (Defend Farmers) and the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP).- Rappler.com