DAVAO CITY, Philippines – On the heels of impeachment filing against Vice President Sara Duterte and the quad-comm House hearings on the war on drugs and POGO, an ethics complaint was filed against a House member who played a key role in the hearings, ACT Teachers Representative France Castro.
Castro, who is a deputy minority leader and member of the independent Makabayan bloc in the House of Representatives, is facing calls for her expulsion based on an ethics complaint.
The complaint, filed on International Human Rights Day on December 10, was led by Datu Allan Causing Admo, Andigao Agay, and Gusting Dalyak Dausay, representing the Ata-Manobo Tribal Council of Elders and Leaders. Admo is the indigenous people’s mandatory representative of Talaingod, Davao del Norte.
The group seeks to expel Castro from Congress on the grounds that she has been convicted of a child harassment suit for her rescue of Talaingod schoolchildren from the military in 2018, a case that is pending appeal at the Court of Appeals.
A news story from Mindanao Times quoted a statement from the group that stated they were hurt by Castro who cited in contempt Vice President Sara Duterte’s chief of staff Lawyer Zuleika Lopez during a House committee hearing on the VP’s confidential funds.
“We were deeply hurt as Indigenous Peoples when we saw her citing Atty. Zuleika Lopez, a fellow IP from the Ovu Manobo and Bagobo Klata Cultural Communities, is in contempt. We remember her father, Judge Jose Lopez, who also fought against abuses committed against Indigenous Peoples,” the statement said.
The group said Castro’s alleged abuse of Talaingod students and her citing of Lopez in contempt are violations against the indigenous peoples.
The complaint was assisted by Lawyer Israelito Torreon, who is also the lawyer of captured preacher and alleged sexual offender Apollo Quiboloy.
Castro has called this ethics complaint as a continuing harassment from groups that have red-tagged the Lumad schools and other progressive groups who have stood with the Lumad.
“So they are again conspiring with their fellow red taggers at the NTF-ELCAC (National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict) to harass those who expose their crimes,” the lawmaker said.
The NTF-ELCAC has supported the filing of the case against Castro. The anti-insurgency agency has in the past red-tagged the Lumad schools and attacked the Makabayan bloc.
Castro said the complaint is a maneuver to divert the public from the issues such as the vice president’s misuse of public funds and former President Rodrigo Duterte’s accountability on extrajudicial killings.
“They are doing this to get back and cover up on their evil crimes against the people. Their mass murder and their corruption are being exposed in the HOR quad committee hearings,” Castro added.
A former lawmaker, lawyer Carlos Zarate from Bayan Muna partylist, said the filing of the ethics complaint is barred by a technicality. “(The House ethics committee) is “mandated not to act on it because of the pending appeal of the questioned case before a higher court.”
He cited House Rule 1 Section 2 on the rules of procedure of the ethics committee that states: “If the subject matter of the complaint against a member of the House is pending in a judicial, quasi-judicial or administrative body, the committee shall defer action on said complaint until final judgment has been rendered by such body.”
Earlier this year, the Tagum City Regional Court Branch 2 found Castro, former Bayan Muna Representative Satur Ocampo, and 11 others including school teachers of endangering Lumad children, and violating the
Special Protection of Children Against Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination Act when they supposedly rescued 14 Lumad students from paramilitary forces in 2018.
The court sentenced Castro and the others to six years in prison, but the case is under appeal.
Rights advocates have thrown support to Castro and the rest, whom they called the “Talaingod 13”, as they questioned the decision given that the Lumad schools have been constantly under attack during the Duterte administration. The ethics complaint brings back those memories.
“It is also despicable how the Duterte camp is using Indigenous Lumads to implicate Teacher France, despite the fact that it was the Duterte regime, in collusion with paramilitary forces and the military, that truly endangered, harassed, and abused the Lumad youth,” said Vlademi Quetua, national chairperson of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT).
The teachers’ group reiterated its call that the government should dismantle NTF-ELCAC for its repressive measures against the people, as its red-tagging stifled democratic rights.
The Supreme Court has recently ruled against red-tagging for its threat to life and liberty of activists. The task force’s former spokespersons have been found by a court guilty of abuse of free speech for red-tagging journalist Atom Araullo.
“Until the NTF-ELCAC is dismantled, it will continue with its goal of sowing harm against progressive groups, individuals, and the people who resist. Its track record is clear in terms of repression and the spread of disinformation,” Quetua said. (davaotoday.com)
ACT Teachers, France Castro, lumad, philippines, sara duterte, talaingod
