On July 15, the Tagum City Regional Trial Court Branch 2 in Davao del Norte rendered a guilty verdict on a “child abuse” case filed against 13 former and sitting lawmakers from the Makabayan bloc in the House of Representatives, as well as 10 lumad school teachers.

“Wherefore,” the decision read, “in light of the foregoing, accused Saturnino Ocampo, France Castro, Ma. Eugenia Victoria ‘Meggie’ Nolasco, Jesus Madamo, Meriro Poquita, Maricel Andagkit, Marcial Rendon, Marianie Aga, Jenevive Paraba, Nerhaya Talledo, Ma. Concepcion Ibarra, Nerfa Awing, and Wingwing Daunsay are convicted of the crime of Violation of Section 10(a), Article VI of R.A. No. 7610,” or the child abuse law.

National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict executive director Ernesto Torres Jr. quickly lauded the verdict, saying at a media briefing that it was a “monumental victory for the indigenous peoples of Talaingod,” and that it demonstrated the NTF-Elcac’s “dedication to protecting [children] from exploitation and harm.”

“The impact of this is increased awareness among our citizens, not just in Davao region, but across the country, that there are such schools that are being hubs of NPA (New People’s Army) recruitment,” Torres was reported as saying in Filipino.

On July 22, the convicted group, called “Talaingod 13,” notified the Tagum court that they would take the verdict to the Court of Appeals. Last Thursday, Oct. 17, a network of advocates across multiple sectors initiated what they called the “Pangiyak Ki!: Defend Talaingod 13 solidarity gathering” at Maryhill School of Theology in Quezon City.

At the packed conference hall with free coffee just by the door, the lumad students stood out in the audience, distinguishable by their traditional red attire and beaded headdress. The “principal accused,” Castro and Ocampo, sat in front along with most of the Talaingod 13 lumad school teachers.

The program was made up of speeches and performances by activists from different groups, primarily the Save Our Schools Network Mindanao. Support for the Talaingod 13 was expressed by the others present, mostly students themselves. Former senator Leila de Lima, recently acquitted of all the drug charges filed against her after almost seven years in detention, delivered a short supportive speech in a pre-recorded video shown to the audience.

‘Solidarity mission’

It all goes back to the night of Nov. 28, 2018, in Talaingod, Davao del Norte, where teachers and students of the Salugpungan Ta Tanu Ingkanogan Community Learning Center in Sitio Dulyan were transported in a van by a group that included former Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo and current ACT-Teachers party list Rep. France Castro, in what they call a “solidarity mission” but what the court described as “exposing the minors to hazard.”

On that day, Castro and Ocampo were asked by Salugpungan executive director Meggie Nolasco to assist in securing a permit that would allow the school to continue operating.

“We went straight to the Office of the Governor to ask for a permit for the school,” Ocampo told CoverStory.ph in a mix of English and Filipino. “But there was no one there. I called the then sitting governor, who I was already acquainted with, to ask them to stop the military from shutting down the school,” but to no avail.

Ocampo had been invited in many other past occasions—even as far back as when he was serving in Congress—to help out in dealing with issues and problems encountered by indigenous peoples. But on Nov. 28, 2018, he recalled, throughout the whole day and afternoon that they reached out to government officials, “no one wanted to talk to us.” And then, he said, they learned that the students had been made to leave the school.

“By that time, it was already evening,” Ocampo said. “So we had to pick them up.”

There were originally three vehicles that would collect the lumad teachers and students at Sitio Dulyan, but they were blocked at a checkpoint and only one was allowed to pass. That vehicle, with a carrying capacity of around four people, ultimately carried more than a dozen exhausted and distressed lumad students and teachers who had just crossed a mountain in the dark of night.

“I cannot forget how we forced ourselves to squeeze into the van,” said Bishop Daniel Palicte of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) during his talk. Palicte was present that night but was not among the accused during the trial. (In fact, of the original 17 accused, the four acquitted are all pastors—Edgar Ugal, Ryan Magpayo, and Jurie Jaime of the UCCP, and Eller Ordeza of the United Methodist Church—due to “their legitimate calling and part of their prophetic ministry in the Mission of the Lord,” as quoted from the Tagum court decision.)

After the lumad teachers and students had been collected, the van was again stopped at a checkpoint on its way out of Talaingod. Ocampo recounted how he had called Sen. Bong Go, former president Rodrigo Duterte’s long-time special assistant, who initially aided the group by talking to the checkpoint police to let them through. But for this military blockade, Go claimed that he could no longer be of help.

“I can still remember how we negotiated with the military who were blocking the road that would get us out of Talaingod.” Palicte said. “And that negotiation led to us being sent to the police station.”

There, the group was interrogated by the Alamara, a local paramilitary group often referred to synonymously with the military.

“[It was supposed to be a] rescue mission,” Ocampo said. “And in the end, we were accused of endangering the children, supposedly forcing them to walk in a dangerous place.”

‘Sasampolan ng isa’

The morning of Nov. 28, 2018, should have been a regular school day.

Nerhaya Talledo, basic education head of the Salugpungan schools and one of the convicted lumad teachers, recounted to CoverStory.ph how their students did not show up at the school that day. They immediately initiated home visits, and were told by the parents that the military had instructed them not to send their children to the school.

“The Alamara was apparently triggered by the home visits we conducted, because after we did the home visits, the Alamara looked for us and made us go back to the school to get our stuff,” Talledo said in Filipino.

The school closure was very sudden, and the military group did not present papers warranting it. Up to that point, the long-embattled school had been able to operate through Nolasco’s diligent coordination with key government offices, such as the Department of Education (DepEd). But when that failed—and it apparently took only one missed opportunity to obtain a permit to operate—disapproving agents quickly took action.

“We were forcibly shut down,” Talledo said. At that time, the lumad teachers, accompanied by their executive director, asked the Alamara if they could stay for at least a night so that they could leave in the morning instead.

But they were not allowed to stay. Lumad student Angelika Moral, one of the 14 minors supposedly “kidnapped” by the Talaingod 13, recalled in an emotional speech delivered in Filipino that she was at the Dulyan school that night with some other senior high school students for on-the-job training.

The military group said that if they did not leave, “‘sasampulan kami ng isang guro o isang estudyante’,” Moral said.

“They really said that,” Talledo told CoverStory.ph. “Sasampulan ng isa”: that if the lumad teachers and students did not leave, one of them would be made a grievous example of.

Around 5 to 6 p.m., the school was shut down. The Alamara began literally nailing the doors shut.

Terror and trauma

“Because of the terror and the trauma, especially for the kids who we saw were already trembling, we decided to leave,” Talledo further recounted. It was then that the Salugpungan group—except those who were residents of Sitio Dulyan or the proximate area—walked across the mountain, on a rainy night, down a dark and slippery trail. Some of the students were from communities located farther away, and had been staying on campus as boarders.

They walked for three hours, reaching Sitio Butay. Some of them had not yet eaten. Out on the highway, however, they were met with more Alamara.

“There was a military checkpoint and they only asked us where we were headed,” Talledo said. “We were let through. They really had no intention of helping us, because they just let us go.”

Some minutes later, they finally met up with Ocampo’s group.

“We were distressed, terrified that we might not make it home alive,” Moral said in her speech. She stopped talking, and began to cry. There was silence in the hall.

“The truth is not really the truth,” the lumad student said. “Our rescuers [Castro and Ocampo] did not force us to come with them; we willingly went with them out of fear. We went with them because they’re our second parents. They are the ones who take care of us while our parents are not yet around.”

Said Palicte: “You can’t imagine that experience. Very traumatic.” He described an instance in which stalkers on motorcycles “fired gunshot rounds” while they were fixing the tires of the van, and another moment when he stayed in the van with the lumad children and teachers while the military group lingered just outside with weapons trained on them.

‘War of narratives’

Sr. Concepcion Gasang, MA, from Save Our Schools Mindanao, called it “a war of narratives [that] is ongoing and alive.”

“We have Apollo Quiboloy, who has reportedly confessed that he is now just a ‘nephew,’ not the ‘son of God’—to lessen the [child sexual abuse] cases filed against him,” Gasang noted. She was referring to the Kingdom of Jesus Christ pastor (and now aspiring senatorial candidate) indicted by a US federal grand jury for, among others, “sex trafficking of children,” per his “Most Wanted” entry in the US Federal Bureau of Investigation’s website.

“Here is the real child abuser way back in 2018, when the case against the [‘Talaingod 13’] was first filed,” Gasang said.

Back in July 2020, Davao prosecutors dismissed allegations of rape, child abuse, and human trafficking against Quiboloy, reasoning “insufficient evidence.” The Department of Justice overturned the resolution just last March.

Wheels of justice

The Talaingod 13 trial lasted five years, and in the end, the Tagum court sentenced the group to four to six years of imprisonment, with a joint fine of P20,000—representing P10,000 for “civil indemnity” and “moral damages” each—to be paid to the 14 minors involved in the incident. “The wheels of justice may grind slowly,” NTF-Elcac’s Torres had said of their conviction, “but in the end, justice and truth will prevail.”

The guilty verdict was issued less than a month after Castro declared, on June 26, that she was planning to seek a Senate seat in the 2025 elections.

But Castro and Ocampo generally remain hopeful that the conviction will be overturned at the Court of Appeals.

“We had a lawyers’ meeting a few weeks ago to prepare the appeal,” Ocampo said. “We’re just waiting for them to inform us once all the arguments to reverse the decision have been drawn up.”

In her speech, Castro said: “We can handle this case against us. But the biggest issue is that, until now, the military are still there [in Talaingod] even when they have already shut down these schools that they have claimed to be affiliated to the NPA.”

‘Shattered dreams’

“I dream of getting our school back,” the lumad student Moral said simply. “The lumad school is our primary source of inspiration and our only hope was built with our school. We built our dream with the school.”

She lamented the profound effect of its closure: “In a flash, the government closed our school. The same government that should have been supporting us was the one who shattered our dreams.”

Castro said she had raised the closure of the lumad schools again during the session of the House committee on basic education held a day prior to the “Pangiyak ki” event. She had recommended that the DepEd present a report on the lumad students and teachers.

“We know that more than 150 of these schools were shut down abruptly under the Duterte government, with no due process, and the DepEd became an instrument for the closure of these schools,” she said.

Castro said they intend to continue seeking the schools’ reopening, and that they would “fight for the removal of the military presence, further defend these ancestral lands, and respect our indigenous peoples’ call for self-determination.”