Law will decide on doc’s fate, not academic records: ELCAC

MANILA – Instead of condemning the arrest of a doctor, who has been identified as a Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) official, the more important issue is how even innocent civilians are being victimized by communist terrorist groups, according to the Western Visayas Regional Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (RTF6-ELCAC) on Sunday.

Prosecutor Flosemer Chris Gonzales, RTF 6-ELCAC spokesperson, said Dr. Maria Natividad Castro was nabbed in San Juan City on Friday morning on the basis of a legitimate and judicially issued court warrant.

“It makes no difference if she graduated top of her class from St. Scholastica’s College or the UP-PGH (University of the Philippines – Philippine General Hospital). Nor does it matter which awards she won. A medical license and an exemplary academic record do not grant anyone immunity from the law,” Gonzales said in a statement.

RTF6-ELCAC likewise assured the Department of Health and all health care workers, especially doctors, that their contributions are highly appreciated but law enforcers must also perform their jobs.

“Let the law enforcement agencies do their jobs and be reminded to never ever think that medical doctors are immune from criminal prosecutions. Trust the legal and judicial processes,” the statement read. “Like you in the medical profession, we must also recognize the contributions of the other sectors in government, especially those who opted to work with the poorest of the poor and those who work to make our communities safe and secure from criminals and terrorists.”

Undersecretary Lorraine Marie Badoy, National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict spokesperson for sectoral concerns, said Castro (alias Ka Yammy/Ka Ami/Dok) is not a simple member of a terrorist organization.

“She is a Central Committee member of the CPP-NPA-NDF (New People’s Army-National Democratic Front). She is also secretary general of a terrorist front, Karapatan-Caraga that lawyers for NPA (rebels),” Badoy said in another statement.

Badoy said Castro “is in the inner sanctum of this terrorist organization and is one of the chief architects of some of the most atrocious crimes committed on the most helpless among us: human trafficking, recruitment, radicalization, kidnapping, murder, homicide, terrorist financing, sexual abuse, child abuse, slavery, etc. She is among the most guilty”.

Gonzales asked the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) to be impartial and fair in their press releases, which claimed that Castro was red tagged.

“While the CHR shows extreme enthusiasm, zeal, passion, and dispatch in attending to the alleged indication of possible violations committed allegedly by police officers on the occasion of the service of arrest warrants to Dr. Castro, we call the attention of the CHR on your less enthusiastic response on the series of killings and ambushes perpetrated by the CPP-NPA in Negros Island during the past few days where the CPP-NPA-NDF terrorists claimed responsibility for the brutal killings of at least four civilians and the wounding of five police officers,” the statement read.

The CHR statement gave “the Filipino people the impression that you are somewhat selective in your issuances of press statements on incidents that are of concern to your office,” the statement added.

CHR should also refrain from using the term “Lumad” to refer to Mindanao indigenous peoples (IP) tribes where Castro allegedly served, according to RTF6-ELCAC.

“Lumad is a term that was coined not by the indigenous peoples themselves but by the CPP-NPA-NDF to collectively refer to members of the tribe,” the statement read.

Badoy said that while with the IP community, Castro “has worn the mask of champion of the indigenous peoples while committing the worst offenses on them. And she has paraded them before the UN (United Nations) and the international community to parrot the CPP-NPA-NDF lies of government atrocities that they themselves committed in order to destroy the image of our country and raise millions/billions from the international community that they then use to fund poverty and terrorism in our country”.

Finally, RTF6-ELCAC said it will pray for the enlightenment of the nuns who issued a statement of concern on the arrest of Castro.

In the absence of proof to substantiate their rants, Gonzales said their statements are “basically irresponsible”.

“Do not judge the merits of the cases filed against Dr. Castro in your statement. You are not the court. You are actually doing injustice to the complainants who filed the cases. Let us allow the judicial processes to proceed and take its rightful course,” the statement read.

RTF6-ELCAC said Filipinos should rally behind the government and educate themselves about the enemies of the state and the damage they have done for over five decades.

“Instead of defending terrorists who wear masks of nobility, the ones we must be defending are our children and our indigenous peoples, the prime targets of these communist terrorists,” he said. “If we are to end this 53-year travesty wrought by the communist terrorist CPP-NPA-NDF on our people we must stand together, impregnable in our shared love for country.” 

The CPP-NPA is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States, European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the Philippines.

The Anti-Terrorism Council also formally designated the NDF as a terrorist organization on June 23, 2021, citing it as “an integral and inseparable part” of the CPP-NPA that was created in April 1973.