Arrest of Satur Ocampo, others proof they’re NPA — AFP chief

MANILA, Philippines — The arrest of former Bayan Muna party-list lawmaker Satur Ocampo and ACT Teacher’s party-list Rep. France Castro in Talaingod, Davao del Norte last week was proof that they were active members of the New People’s Army (NPA), Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief Gen. Carlito Galvez Jr. said yesterday.

Ocampo and Castro, along with 16 other individuals caught transporting 14 minors aged 14 to 17 last week, Galvez said, were themselves carrying out the task of recruitment because they no longer have enough people on the ground.

“We know they’re active members of the NPA, that’s why they were charged in Ormoc, Leyte over Oplan Ahos,” Galvez told reporters at Camp Aguinaldo, referring to the rebel purge in the 1980s.

President Duterte yesterday said law enforcers did the right thing in arresting Ocampo’s group. He said children cannot be removed from their communities without consent of their parents.

“That is actually kidnapping. The victims are complaining. You heard they were lectured upon by the lumads. And it’s like controlling the lives of the natives. That’s the problem with communists – they use the lumads,” he said, vowing to protect police from counter-charges.

Galvez denied allegations Ocampo and the others were held on trumped-up charges.

“These are true, true realities,” he said.

Galvez added the people should know that lumad schools in Talaingod like the Salugpungan and Alcadev are breeding grounds for NPA guerrillas.

He said Ocampo and his militant supporters bring indigenous peoples (IPs) to Manila purportedly for exposure because the latter are the “most vulnerable sector na kaya nilang lokohin (that they can fool).”

AFP spokesman Brig. Gen. Edgard Arevalo earlier noted that the military has always believed in the rule of law and that it is now up to the courts to look into the charges lodged against Ocampo and company.   

He said the minors were taken without permission from their parents and “at the dead of the evening, in the dead of night.” 

Malacañang, meanwhile, distanced itself from foreign affairs secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr.’s criticizing the filing of kidnapping charges against Ocampo and the others. –  With Romina Cabrera