FLAG: Family of arrested community doctor granted access, but details on case still unclear
MANILA, Philippines (Updated 3:25 p.m.) — Two sisters of arrested community doctor Maria Natividad Castro were able to spend time with her in Agusan del Sur yesterday, though no documents relevant to the arrest have yet been issued by local police, the Free Legal Assistance Group said Sunday.
In an update on the arrest, the FLAG said that it would pursue all legal remedies to secure Castro's immediate release, while Castro "reserves her rights to pursue legal remedies against those police officers who violated her rights with impunity."
"As the records of the case are still not available to FLAG because the courts are closed until Monday, FLAG and Doc Naty are still unaware of the exact circumstances of the case that has allegedly been filed against her and the reason for her arrest," FLAG said.
To recall, Castro was taken from her home in San Juan on Friday, denied access to her family or counsel, and transported without notifying her family or counsel.
Police prevented them and Castro’s relatives from getting access to the doctor and refused to give them copies of the warrant of arrest, reports, and documents related to Castro’s arrest and detention.
In a press release sent to reporters Saturday, the Philippine National Police claimed that Castro is a member of the Communist Party of the Philippines’ central committee and head of its national health bureau based in Barangay Libertad in Butuan City.
Caraga police also claimed that Castro was allegedly involved in the kidnapping of a member of the military's Citizen Armed Force Geographical Unit Active Auxiliary in Sibagat, Agusan del Sur on Dec. 29, 2018.
"Contrary, however, to what the police have been announcing on their social media pages, Doc Naty is not a communist nor is she a terrorist. She is a health worker who has been helping those who need help the most," FLAG said.
FLAG said that Castro would also pursue legal remedies over the red-tagging.
The CHR said it is now investigating “possible violations” committed by police in arresting and detaining Castro.
Red-tagging is defined in Philippine jurisprudence as “the act of labeling, branding, naming and accusing individuals and/or organizations of being left-leaning, subversives, communists or terrorists (used as) a strategy... by State agents, particularly law enforcement agencies and the military, against those perceived to be ‘threats’ or ‘enemies of the State.’”
UP Manila expresses concern
In a statement issued later Sunday, officials of the University of the Philippines Manila also expressed their concern and opposition to the arrest.
Castro, an alumna of the University of the Philippines Manila College of Medicine Class of 1995, served as a community physician in the rural areas of Agusan and other parts of Mindanao since 1996 after her graduation.
Most notably, she also presented the plight of the lumads to the United Nations in Geneva, the statement said.
"She has become a staunch human rights defender, specifically of the lumads and indigenous communities whom she has been attending to all these years. She is practicing what the UP has envisioned its graduates to be—community-oriented using the primary health care approach intended for the underserved," the statement reads.
"We are all concerned [that] another doctor practicing in the underserved areas where we have asked our graduates to serve is again being maligned and red-tagged... we still remember with sadness and anger the deaths of our own graduates."
The statement was jointly signed by medical doctors UPM chancellor Carmencita Padilla, Philippine General Hospital director Gerardo Legaspi, College of Medicine dean Charlotte Chiong, and UP Medical Alumni Society president Cristina Crisologo.
A separate statement from the UP Manila community, this time from its Department of Family and Community Medicine, also condemned what it said was the "wrongful and baseless" arrest of Castro.
"Dr. Castro did nothing but live up to the ideals of a doctor that the country invested in. Her 26-year career is not of wrongdoing but that of selfless service to the poor and the marginalized," the signatories, which consisted both of faculty members and resident doctors, said.
"Why then has she been subjected to such injustice and wrongdoing? That she is wrongfully arrested on trumped-up charges speaks to the evils of a government that fears upstanding and empowered citizens."
The signatories demanded the immediate release of Castro and called on the Duterte government "and its agents to be held accountable for the injustice and unnecessary pain and suffering inflicted."
"We are deeply concerned that the treatment of Dr. Naty Castro is sending a chililng message that will deter doctors from serving in the communities, especially since it is the government itself that is involved," they said.
"It is the people who will ultimately suffer. We refuse to accept this kind of message."
— with reports from Kristine Joy Patag and Xave Gregorio
- Latest
- Trending
