WHERE is Dr. Naty Castro?
This is the question raised by the human rights group, Karapatan, to the Philippine National Police who arrested Dr. Maria Natividad “Naty” Castro, a known health practitioner in Mindanao.
Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay said it has already been more than 24 hours since a composite team of police and military intelligence operatives arrested Castro in Barangay San Perfecto, San Juan City yesterday.
“We and the family are worried because until now the PNP has yet to tell us where the doctor is detained,” Palabay said.
Palabay said the last time the family saw Castro, who is also known as “Naty,” was in Camp Crame where she was brought after her arrest.
She said the police told the family that Castro was brought to Butuan City but a Karapatan lawyer checked at PNP Camp Rafael Rodriguez found that the doctor was not detained there.
“We strongly remind the PNP that continuing to hold Dr. Naty incommunicado is a grave violation of her rights as a person,” Palabay said.
Palabay said Castro has hypertension and diabetes and should be given medical attention of her own choice.
Police tagged Castro as an alleged central committee member of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New Peoples Army.
They accused Castro as the alleged head of the CPP-NPA National Health Bureau.
The police alleged that Castro was involved in the kidnapping and detention of a militiaman in Barangay Kolambugan, Sibagat town, Agusan del Sur last Dec. 29, 2018.
Judge Fernando Fudalan Jr. of Regional Trial Court Branch 7 in Bayugan City has thrown out the kidnapping and detention cases involving militiamen in a ruling formulated last November 2021.
Fudalan released 17 human rights workers detained for more than a year in Sibagat town.
Lawyer Beverly Musni of the Union of People’s Lawyers in Mindanao said they found Castro along with 45 other human rights workers accused of violating Republic Act 9851 or “Philippine Act on Crimes Against International Humanitarian Law, Genocide, and Other Crimes Against Humanity”; and RA 10363 or “Expanded `anti-Trafficking in Person Act of 2012.
Musni said the case was filed with the Office of City Prosecutors in Libertad, Butuan City.
Along with Castro, named as co-respondent is Renalyn Tejero, a Karapatan paralegal who was arrested in Cagayan de Oro and brought to Butuan City last March 21, 2021.
