Various progressive groups led by the Defend Talaingod 13 Network protested before the Court of Appeals in Manila on July 15. They called for a reversal of the conviction by Tagum City Regional Trial Court Branch 2 against the Talaingod 13.
The Talaingod 13 were unjustly convicted of child abuse on July 15, 2024. Authorities filed the charged them for rescuing teachers and 14 students from the Lumad school in Sitio Dulyan, Barangay Palma Gil, Talaingod, Davao del Norte on November 28, 2018.
The teachers and students at that time were facing harassment and death threats from members of the paramilitary group Alamara, as instigated and ordered by the 56th Infantry Battalion. Prior to this, the military imposed a blockade on food and other supplies at the school and forcibly padlocked the schools.
The Talaingod 13 includes former ACT Teachers Partylist Rep. France Castro, former Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo, Salugpongan Learning Center administrator Eugenia Victoria Nolasco, and Lumad school teachers Jesus Madamo, Meriro Poquita, Maricel Andagkit, Marcial Rendon, Marianie Aga, Jenevive Paraba, Nerhaya Tallada, Ma. Concepcion Ibarra, Nerfa Awing, and Wingwing Daunsay.
After the court handed down its decision against the 13, they filed an appeal at the Court of Appeals, but the court has yet to decide on their petition.
“The court maliciously misrepresented their humanitarian act as a case of ‘child endangerment’ since their group had to navigate through hostile territory controlled by the Alamara before they could reach safer ground,” Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay said.
She added that sentencing the Talaingod 13 from four to six years of imprisonment for rescuing Lumad children is the height of absurdity. “While, allowing the Alamara, the 56th IBPA and others who have been systematically violating Lumad children’s rights to go scot-free,” Palabay said.
Palabay said this incident in Talaingod is just one part of a bigger picture of the previous Duterte regime’s attacks on the rights and schools of the Lumad. Duterte once ordered the bombing of Lumad schools, then later closed more than 250 Lumad schools in Mindanao.
“One year after the unjust verdict against the Talaingod 13, we raise our calls with renewed vigor to have the court’s verdict overturned,” Palabay said.
Bagong Alyansang Makabayan also joined the call. The group said it would include this call along with condemning the weaponization of law to silence dissent in the upcoming mass protest on the day of Ferdinand Marcos Jr’s 4th State of the Nation Address.
