DAVAO CITY, Philippines — The Court of Appeals upheld the conviction of the “Talaingod 13,” a group of advocates led by former Bayan Muna Congressman Satur Ocampo and ACT Teachers Partylist Rep. France Castro, and Lumad volunteer teachers who were sentenced under the childabuse law for assisting displaced Manobo children during the 2018 humanitarian evacuation from Talaingod, Davao del?Norte.
The decision, which treats the provision of food, shelter and schooling as criminal conduct, has ignited a wave of criticism from education advocates, human rights lawyers and Indigenous leaders who say the ruling weaponizes the legal system against community based relief efforts.
The Save Our Schools (SOS) Network on Saturday joined Lumad leader Eufemia Cullamat in condemning the conviction of the Talaingod 13, warning that the ruling deepens the criminalization of Lumad volunteer teachers and community advocates while shielding the structures that enabled land dispossession and militarization.
In a statement issued on December 28, the SOS Network said the case against the Talaingod 13 must be understood within a broader context of state abandonment, extractive projects, and counterinsurgency policies in Indigenous territories, particularly in Talaingod, Davao del Norte.
SOS said Lumad schools did not emerge in defiance of the State but as a response to its failure to provide accessible education to Indigenous communities.
The group said that for decades, Talaingod Manobo children were denied meaningful access to public schools due to distance, lack of teachers, and neglect, even as ancestral lands in the Pantaron Range were opened to state-issued logging concessions.
“As communities resisted dispossession, militarization followed,” SOS said, citing heightened military presence, the deployment of paramilitary groups, preceded the closure of Lumad schools.
Salugpongan schools became centers not only of learning but of collective survival, self-determination, and defense of ancestral land, SOS said.
Cullamat echoed this, saying attempts to portray recent press conferences led by former Talaingod Mayor Pilar Libayao as representing Lumad voices distort reality.
She said these narratives defend logging interests and militarization while discrediting Indigenous resistance and those who protected displaced children.
The National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) was quick to dismiss Cullamat’s statements, pointing out that Cullamat’s daughter Jevilyn was killed in an encounter between the New People’s Army and the military in 2020.
NTF-ELCAC Executive Director Ernesto C. Torres Jr. also claimed that “Talaingod has spoken.”
The SOS Network said the Court of Appeals ruling cannot be separated from a counterinsurgency framework that treats community institutions as security threats.
“In 2018, Lumad children faced mass school closures, forced displacement, and escalating military operations,” SOS said. “Volunteer teachers and advocates acted only after repeated appeals for help were ignored by state agencies. Providing food, shelter, safety, and continuity of learning was an act of necessity, not intrusion.”
Instead of confronting land grabbing and militarization, the decision extends repression into the legal arena by transforming humanitarian action into alleged criminal conduct.
Citing anthropologist and public health advocate Dr. Michael Lim Tan, SOS stressed that child abuse involves actual harm such as injury, exploitation, or coercion—not care and protection during crisis.
“The real harm lies in exposing children to fear, hunger, and violence,” the group said, warning that stripping child-protection laws of context in a counterinsurgency setting inverts justice.
Both Cullamat and SOS described the Talaingod 13 case as an example of selective justice, where the legal system moves swiftly against Indigenous teachers and advocates while powerful actors linked to land conversion, extraction, and human rights abuses evade accountability.
“This is lawfare,” SOS said, arguing that the law is being used to discipline resistance and criminalize solidarity, rather than to protect children or uphold justice.
The Union of Peoples’ Lawyers in Mindanao (UPLM) also weighed in, condemning former NTF-ELCAC spokesperson Antonio?Parlade for red?tagging human rights lawyer Dean?Tony?La?Viña.
Parlade’s accusations stem from La Viña’s legal defense of Talaingod 13.
UPLM called Parlade’s claims “baseless and malicious,” emphasizing that La Viña was merely fulfilling his professional duty.
“Equating legal advocacy with support for armed rebellion seeks to criminalize the practice of law itself,” the group said.
UPLM anchored its condemnation in the Supreme Court En Banc decision Siegfred D. Deduro v. Maj.Gen. Eric Vinoya (G.R.No.254753), issued July 4,2023 and released May8,2024. The Court held that “red tagging, vilification, labeling, and guilt by association threaten a person’s right to life, liberty, or security” and may justify a writ of amparo.
It warned that branding individuals as communists or terrorists exposes them to attacks by vigilantes, paramilitary groups, or state agents, and that victims should not have to wait for abduction or death before seeking protection.
“This decision confirms what victims have long experienced—red tagging is not harmless speech but a dangerous pathway to violence,” UPLM noted, citing documented cases where public vilification preceded attacks on activists and critics.
UPLM held Parlade directly responsible for any threat to La Viña’s safety and urged the Marcos Jr. administration, the Philippine National Police, and the Armed Forces of the Philippines to repudiate red tagging and protect human rights defenders.
The group also called on the Integrated Bar of the Philippines to safeguard the independence of the legal profession and urged Congress to enact legislation criminalizing red tagging.
“We will not be cowed,” UPLM affirmed. “We will continue to defend the defenseless and uphold the rule of law.”
In his New Year column “Choosing a Better?2026,” La Viña addressed the red tagging, explaining that it followed his public call for the acquittal of the “Talaingod 13.”
“As a result of this advocacy, I was redtagged by Mr. Antonio Parlade. He also redtagged the people I defended,” La Viña wrote, adding that this was not the first time he had been accused of being sympathetic to communists.
La Viña stressed that he rejects violence and believes peace must be central to national renewal. “Peace is not weakness. It is a moral choice grounded in justice,” he said, calling for efforts to address the roots of armed conflict such as inequality, landlessness, and exclusion.
La?Viña linked his advocacy to wider struggles for social justice, including the defense of Indigenous communities such as the Molbog of Marihangin Island, Palawan, who face displacement from tourism and conservation projects.
“There will be no better 2026 unless love confronts injustice, peace defeats violence, and accountability ends impunity,” he wrote.
UPLM echoed this sentiment, noting that the Deduro ruling now offers a powerful legal shield against red tagging and should deter those who weaponize accusations against activists, lawyers, and advocates.
UPLM urged “Stop the red-tagging. Uphold the rule of justice. Defend human rights defenders.”
For its part, the SOS network said “Care is not a crime. Teaching as a vocation is not abuse. Justice for the Talaingod 13 is justice for the Lumad.” (davaotoday.com)
