ACT TEACHERS Partylist Rep. France Castro denounced the continuing harassment of teachers of the Lumad community, particularly those arrested in the bakwit school in Cebu.

“We demand Teacher Rochelle be released immediately. They were arrested on trumped-up cases for being volunteer teachers of the Lumad school and have been victims of continuous red-tagging by the Duterte administration,” Castro said.

She was referring to Rochell Porcadilla, one of those arrested at the University of San Carlos.

“The PNP continues to spread lies by saying that the National Union of People’s Lawyers does not represent her despite signing the Request for Preliminary Investigation and Waiver of Article 125 of the RPC confirming that the NUPL-Cebu will represent her. The PNP cannot speak to Teacher Rochelle without the presence of her counsel. These are clear violations of her rights,” the lawmaker added.

Porcadilla is a Mindanao Interfaith Service Foundation Incorporated scholar and a graduate of BS Education major in English.

After graduating in 2019, she was assigned to teach at the MISFI Salaysay Campus. She decided to join Lumad students in Cebu to help them continue with their education.

Porcadilla was arrested along with 6 others by police and military forces during an alleged rescue operation at the University of San Carlos-Talamban Campus on February 15.

Castro lamented that state security forces have been terrorizing the Lumad community. Their teachers and leaders are also tagged as enemies of the state.

“Lumad schools have long been red-tagged by the state. Indigenous peoples and their leaders are victims of state terrorism. Their ancestral land and basic human rights are continuously violated with the harassments and threats they receive everyday,” she said.

“Their school sites in Mindanao destroyed, their school heads, teachers and leaders arrested and or killed. Just like what the state is doing to the University of the Philippines and other red-tagged schools, Lumad students and teachers have long been accused of teaching and recruiting rebels,” Castro added.