Doctors, health workers, development workers and colleagues of community doctor Naty Castro reiterated their call for her release as they gathered Monday, Feb. 21 in University of the Philippines Manila.
A community doctor who joined a United Nations delegation in 2016 to defend indigenous peoples in Caraga Region was arrested following a police raid at her house in San Juan, Metro Manila.
In Southern Mindanao, the human rights group Karapatan recorded 56 deaths of human rights defenders from the start of the Duterte administration from July 2016 to August 2021. The region also tallied 30 political detainees in the same period.
On its Facebook page, the Council for Health and Development said it “condemns in the strongest possible terms the senseless killing” of Andutan.
The families, who waited through ten years to hear the conviction, said they are worried of recent news from their lawyer Attorney Nena Santos, who said the Ampatuans have appealed to the Office of the President the Department of Justice to overturn the decisio of Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes.