THE Save Our Schools (SOS) Network has condemned a recent Court of Appeals decision affirming the conviction of the "Talaingod 13," warning that the ruling sets a dangerous precedent by criminalizing humanitarian acts and Indigenous education.
In an emailed statement today, Dec. 27, the network expressed "grave concern" over the decision, which upheld the conviction of a group that includes former lawmakers Saturnino Ocampo and France Castro, as well as several Lumad volunteer teachers.
The appellate court’s decision, dated Nov. 27, and received by the defense on Dec. 17, affirmed charges filed against the group following a controversial 2018 incident in Talaingod, Davao del Norte.
The SOS Network argues that the group was performing a "humanitarian rescue operation" for students and teachers facing "mass school closures, forced displacement, and escalating militarization.
"The state, however, pursued charges under Republic Act 7610, the Special Protection of Children Against Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination Act.
The network contends the court's ruling "recast this humanitarian act as a criminal offense" and disregards the emergency conditions under which the educators were operating.
'Criminalization of care'
The SOS Network characterized the defendants not as criminals, but as "individuals who answered a calling to teach, care for, and defend Indigenous children" in areas abandoned by the state.
According to the group, the "Talaingod 13" acted in loco parentis (in the place of a parent) because government agencies had failed to provide safety or education to the community.
"The ruling treated acts of protection, accompaniment, and vocation as criminal conduct. By erasing context, intent, and lived reality, the decision completed the logic of lawfare. Care was redefined as abuse," the network's advocacy primer reads in part.
The group maintains that the use of child-protection laws in this context is an "inversion" of justice. They argue that while teachers are prosecuted, the "structures and actors that produced dispossession, militarization, and deprivation remain beyond accountability.
Context of the conflict
The case centers on the operations of Salugpongan schools, which the network says were established to fill a void created by "structural neglect" and the absence of public schools in Indigenous territories.
The network asserts that these schools became targets of a "whole-of-state assault" in 2018, involving forced closures and intimidation by paramilitary groups.
The government’s National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) has previously branded such schools as rebel training centers — a claim the SOS Network rejects as propaganda used to justify repression.
Among those convicted alongside Ocampo and Castro is Meggie Nolasco, the executive director of the Salugpongan Lumad Schools.
The network highlighted that Nolasco and other volunteers, such as agriculturalist Maricel Andagkit and teacher Jenevive Paraba, were serving communities where "education was inseparable from land defense."
Legal and political implicationsThe SOS Network views the prosecution as "lawfare," described as the strategic use of legal mechanisms to dismantle community institutions.
"The inclusion and conviction of Saturnino Ocampo (Ka Satur) and France Castro alongside Lumad educators... demonstrates that the target of lawfare was never limited to local school personnel, but extended to anyone who intervened," the primer reads.
Walden Bello, a human rights advocate, criticized the appellate court's ruling as "a brazen miscarriage of justice," stating that the decision "is not about protecting children" but punishing those who stand with Indigenous communities.
The SOS Network confirmed that legal remedies are being pursued, including a Motion for Reconsideration. "If allowed to stand, it normalizes the criminalization of care," the network warned. "The next emergency will not be met with help, but with fear.”
