ACT Teachers Partylist calls for dismissal of the trumped up charges against Talaingod 18; members of National Solidarity Mission (NSM) who were arbitrarily detained and charged amid their rescue of Lumad students and teachers of the Salugpungan Ta’Tanu Igkanogon Community Learning Center, Inc. and of the Community Technical College of Southeastern Mindanao (CTCSM) on November 28, 2018.
Among the Talaingod 18 is Teacher France Castro, representative of ACT Teachers Partylist. Teacher France joined the mission as part of her duties as Member of the House of Representatives and a congressional representative of marginalized sectors, including the indigenous peoples.
In mid-November 2018, Save Our Schools Network (SOS Network) invited individuals and organizations for an urgent humanitarian mission to the Dulyan and Nasilaban campuses of Salugpungan, because of the worsening militarization, food blockade, and aerial bombings, among others, by the Armed Forces of the Philippines and its paramilitary group, the Alamara.
Thus, the mission that the Talaingod 18 took part in was the response to their call for the resumption of classes in said campuses and to provide them food, medicines, and school supplies.
But the Duterte administration had other intentions— downright opposite to the humanitarian mission. The mission delegates faced irregular checkpoints, several threats and harassments, before being forced by police and military in full battle gear to go to the Talaingod police station. And thus, the Talaingod 18 were charged in court with “child abuse”.
The case of Talaingod 18 is a distressing proof of the Duterte administration’s “mission” of conducting grave injustices against Lumad communities in Mindanao, including unjust charges, harassment, and ongoing closures. Despite successful with their disgusting plan to close all Lumad schools, the wheel of violence and oppression keeps spinning, now under the Marcos Jr. Administration.
Now, with the case of Talaingod 18 scheduled for promulgation on July 15, 2024, ACT Teachers Partylist is calling for the protection of human rights defenders and the sectors they stand with, including indigenous peoples. Condemn the continued terrorism of the Marcos Jr. administration and its machineries towards IP communities, activists, farmers, and human right defenders. (ACT TEACHERS PARTYLIST |FACEBOOK)
