Southeast Asian lawmakers demand charges to be dropped against Philippine Representative France Castro

JAKARTA – Authorities in the Philippines must immediately drop trumped-up “kidnapping” and “human trafficking” charges against a sitting congresswoman and 17 other people who were trying to assist indigenous communities harassed by a paramilitary group, ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) said today.

Representative France Castro (a member of APHR) was arrested on 29 November after a convoy she was travelling in was stopped at a military checkpoint outside of Talaingod town in Davao del Norte, Mindanao. The convoy was part of a so-called National Solidarity Mission (NSM) which had travelled to the region to provide humanitarian aid to a school of children belonging to the indigenous Lumad community.

“These baseless charges against Congresswoman France Castro and 17 other people appear to be purely politically motivated and must be dropped immediately,” said APHR Chair Charles Santiago, a member of the Malaysian Parliament.

“Instead of targeting those trying to assist beleaguered indigenous communities, the Philippines authorities should do much more to end abuse by paramilitary groups in Mindanao.”

Police claim that the members of the NSM were charged and detained because they had illegally transported 14 Lumad students from the school without their parents’ consent.

The NSM, however, say they were attempting to temporarily move the children to a safe shelter, since the school had suffered harassment by a local paramilitary group, who had forcibly closed the schooland imposed a blockade on food entering the community. The delegation say teachers and students had felt threatened by the paramilitary group’s presence and asked for their help to leave the area.

Apart from Frances Castro, the 18 people eventually charged on 30 November include a former Congressman (Satur Ocampo), four Protestantministers and teachers from the school.

The 18 have been charged under the Expanded Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2012 and the Special Protection of Children Against Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination Act for “kidnapping and failure to return a minor”. They were released on bail late on 1 December, but the investigation against them is ongoing.

Paramilitary groups in the Mindanao region have a track record of human rights abuses. In 2015, Human Rights Watch documented how paramilitary groups in the region committed violence against indigenous communities, including by harassing students at tribal schools which they claim indoctrinate students in communist ideology.

Since President Rodrigo Duterte took office in 2016, his administration has stepped up judicial harassment of opposition lawmakers. Two Senators, Leila de Lima and Antonio Trillanes, have been arrested on trumped-up criminal charges. Leila de Lima has languished in prison awaiting trial since February 2017, while Antonio Trillanes was released on bail after his brief arrest in September 2018.

In February 2018, Carlos Isagani Zarate also faced charges including conducting a rally without a permit under Section 13(a) of the Public Assembly Act after he staged a protest against the visit of US President Donald Trump to the Philippines the year before.

“The systematic attempts by the Duterte administration to use fabricated criminal charges against members of the opposition are deeply worrying and must end immediately. The Philippine people, and those elected to represent them, must be allowed to voice peaceful criticism against the authorities without fear of arrest and harassment,” said Charles Santiago.