President Rodrigo Duterte backed the arrest of former congressman Satur Ocampo, saying he was guilty of kidnapping and human trafficking and endangered the lives of Lumad children.
Ocampo, ACT Teachers Party-list Rep. France Castro, and others in their group were arrested last week for allegedly bringing minors out of Talaingod, Davao del Norte. They have since posted bail.
READ: Ocampo nabbed for transporting 14 minors
“I support the police and the military. I think the police did the right thing,” the President said in a chance interview at the Palace Monday evening.
Duterte said Ocampo, a former lawmaker, must be aware that an individual cannot forcefully “remove children from one community to another without the consent of the parents.”
“That is actually a kidnapping. The victims even complained… That’s the problem with the communists, they are using the Lumad. That’s why most of the casualties now are Lumad,” he said.
The President said Ocampo and his group’s actions could have put the lives of the children in danger.
“There might be an encounter, a shootout, putting in danger everybody,” he said.
Ocampo has dismissed the allegations that communist rebels are recruiting minors in Lumad areas, insisting that the Communist Party of the Philippines–New People’s Army has its own “rule against recruiting minors.”
“Definitely, that could not be a part of the program of the NPA,” he told ANC’s Headstart.
He said it was a coincidence that the communist rebels operate in areas where the Lumad are.
“It so happens that most if not all of the communities of the Lumads are in the hinterlands, so they become battleground areas. It is not surprising that the NPA has its main objective of organizing the people in the struggle for their own welfare,” he said.
“It doesn’t deny that there are Lumads who joined the NPA, but they are not minors,” he added.
The President, however, was not convinced, saying that while Ocampo’s groups may “have been motivated by all of the good intentions in the world,” the actions that they took were crimes.
“You know they might have been motivated by all of the good intentions in the world. But there is the intent which is criminal in bringing out and transferring children from one area to another eventually using them in their struggle,” he said.
“Satur Ocampo is fronting Bayan. Bayan [Muna] is a front of the Communist Party of the Philippines. Why do we need to have drama? We all know that KMU (Kilusang Mayo Uno), that Gabriela, they’re all communist fronts or being used by the communists. We all know that,” he said.
The President then said that 75 percent of the members of the NPA are Lumads.
“It’s a pity. That’s the hard part when it comes to them [communists]. They cannot recruit people, so they are taking the Lumads,” he said.
“So, we have to gather them back again and tell them, ‘Look, stop f****** with the communists. They will just destroy you’,” he added.
The Department of Social Welfare and Development has taken custody of the 14 Lumad children that were with Ocampo and Castro.
READ: Castro, Ocampo deserve dignified treatment, Arroyo says
