Satur Ocampo, France Castro face kidnapping, human traf icking charges
DAVAO CITY – Former Bayan Muna representative Satur Ocampo, ACT Teachers Representative France Castro, and over 70 others are facing kidnapping and human trafficking charges over the transport of 14 children from Talaingod town in Davao del Norte, police said yesterday.
Senior Superintendent Ferlu Silvio, Davao del Norte provincial police chief, confirmed this a day after Ocampo, Castro, and other delegates of the National Solidarity Mission (NSM) were arrested in a checkpoint in Talaingod. They had since been detained at the Talaingod Municipal
Police Station.
The joint police and military team based the arrest on the presence of children in the NSM vehicles, and said they "rescued" the minors aged 14 to 17. Davao Region police said the minors were being transported from Barangay Palma Gil in Talaingod, towards Maco in Compostela Valley.
The Salugpongan Ta'Tanu Igkanogon Community Learning Center Incorporated said, however, that the children were students of the STTICLC school in Barangay Palma Gil who were being evacuated by the NSM due to alleged harassment by state forces, including a food blockade to the school.
The Davao del Norte police chief said the kidnapping charge stemmed from the claim of a minor that he was being held against his will.
“His parents had been trying to secure him for the past 5 days but were rejected,” Silvio told Rappler in a phone interview.
As for the rest of the children, Silvio said the social welfare office of Talaingod continues to conduct a “profiling” on them.
“Some came from as far as Zamboanga del Sur,” he added.
Leftist lawmakers comprising the Makabayan bloc in the House of Representatives denounced what they called the "illegal" arrest and "trumped up charges."