Former Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo, ACT Teachers Rep. France Castro, and 17 others will face charges on abduction, child abuse, and trafficking in persons for allegedly taking Lumad students of a learning center to teach rebellious ideas against the government.
Ocampo’s convoy was arrested in a police checkpoint in Talaingod town in Davao del Norte Wednesday night. They allegedly abducted 14 minors, Chief Supt. Benigno Durana Jr., spokesperson of the Philippine National Police (PNP) told reporters.
Durana said Ocampo and his camp use the learning center in Sitio Dulyan, Barangay Palma Gil in Talaingod as a front organization of the Communist Party of the Philippines – New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) to recruit Lumads to the rebel movement.
He said the local Department of Education (DepEd) has ordered the closure of the learning center this year. It is also not accredited by DepEd, he said.
“There is a complaint filed by the tribal leaders and the parents of these minors, 14 minors were taken from their parents,” he said.
Durana said this complaint led to the arrest of Ocampo and his camp in the checkpoint.
He said the learning center “serves as a recruitment center of the CPP-NPA, and at the same time teaching, agitating the students to hate the government [and] to rebel against the government.”