Scratching the surface on the so-called Talaingod 13

A year after the conviction of former Bayan Muna Representative Satur Ocampo, ACT Teachers Partylist Representative France Castro, and 11 others over a child abuse incident in Talaingod, Davao del Norte, the former secretary of Southern Mindanao Regional Party Committee’s Subregion 5 offered an insider’s look into the underground structure that she said was behind the “rescue mission.”

Ida Marie Montero, or Ka Mandy, shared details that painted a picture far more complex than what made headlines in November 2018.

“At the time, I had no prior knowledge of the ‘rescue mission,’” Montero said. “We had just been in an armed encounter with the military, and still maneuvering our retreat when my collective* in the Regional Party Committee called me to say that something had gone wrong in Talaingod.”

Montero's collective was referring to a convoy led by Ocampo and Castro that was attempting to remove underage students and their teachers from a Salugpungan school in Sitio Dulyan, Brgy. Palma Gil. The school was supposedly under threat from a state-backed local paramilitary group called Alamara. Local police later intercepted and arrested the convoy, sparking debate over whether it was a humanitarian rescue mission or a case of child abuse.

Following the arrest, 18 individuals were charged with endangering the underage students and taking them without the consent of their parents or guardians. In July last year, a regional court in Tagum City ruled that the accused, save for five pastors, were guilty of the charges. The 13 convicted are currently appealing the decision.

Deeper 

But according to Montero, who surrendered to the government in 2022, the story behind the Talaingod 13’s mission ran deeper, reaching the underground movement of the CPP-NPA-NDFP.

“That activity wasn’t planned at our level [in the subregion],” she said. “It was the regional committee that called the shots. The goal was to facilitate the exit of the students and teachers from Talaingod, not just for their safety, but also to amplify the propaganda of the Save Our Schools Network — to frame the situation as militarization.”

According to Montero, the Save Our Schools Network is a multi-sectoral alliance that was established in order to protect the schools the CPP put up in far-flung Lumad communities across Mindanao. Its activities include network-building, propaganda, and fundraising in the country and abroad.

She added that another unstated goal of the "rescue mission" was to expand influence in other Lumad communities targeted by the CPP-NPA for expansion. “There was a strategy behind that convoy,” she said. “It wasn’t just a rescue. It was also about recovery and mass base expansion in unorganized territories.”

Coordinated

Montero confirmed that the operation had been coordinated between the CPP’s units in the countryside and its cadres within the legal organizations in Davao City and in Metro Manila. However, she clarified that the coordination was managed not by the NPA guerrilla units in the countryside, but by a CPP organ operating in cities and town centers.

“Yes, there is a specific committee at the regional level in Southern Mindanao called the Regional Committee of Towns and Cities or RCTC,” Montero revealed. “It is composed of full-time Party cadres embedded inside legal organizations. They are the ones who received orders from the regional leadership, particularly regarding the execution of the 'rescue mission' and the participation of 'national personalities' such as Ocampo and Castro.”

Montero explained that the November 2018 operation was packaged by the SOS Network as a "National Solidarity Mission (NSM)" to "investigate human rights violations and support Salugpungan schools."

She added that other than coordinating high-impact activities like the NSM, cadres in the RCTC operate in areas where NPA forces cannot be openly deployed. "Their task is to recover the NPA's mass bases, recruit more members, and expand the reach of the revolutionary movement using legal means.”

Asked whether the charged individuals, later dubbed as the Talaingod 18, knew that the mission served the CPP's bigger design, Montero said she cannot speculate if all of them knew. "For us CPP cadres of the region both in the countryside and the cities, we were under the impression that everyone in the mission, or at least the national personalities, knew. In the first place, why were they there? Why would anybody agree to go to Talaingod in the middle of the night and subject the children to the kind of travails they experienced?" she reasoned.

“It was also the Party's design that they have a believable backstory or reason for being there,” Montero said. “I can’t speak for what they knew. But from the Party’s side, their involvement was planned.”

Blurred for a reason

Montero expressed concern that currently, there are calls to demand the reversal of the court decision, and even to reopen the Salugpungan schools. "I am wary that these organizations, operating under the guise of advocacy, will continue to mislead the public unless they are exposed. Only some in the government, the security sector, and a few members of the media believe former rebels,” she said. As to her motivation for speaking up, she and other former rebels are calling for these stories to be amplified to prevent others from being misled.  

Over the years, supposedly legal organizations like the Salugpungan schools and their network have been linked to the CPP-NPA-NDF. While those accusations have often been dismissed as red-tagging, former rebels like Montero are firm that these links exist.

“They are not only tied by ideology, but in organization as well,” she said. “The use of legal personalities in operations like this offers protection. It draws in media, public sympathy, and complicates law enforcement response. But at the core, it’s still a CPP operation.”

“If people want to understand how the movement works,” she said, “they need to stop treating these aboveground organizations as separate from underground organizations. The lines are blurred for a reason.” But Montero, like many former rebels, is confident that more and more people are scratching the surface to reveal the truth.

*Collective - a co-member of the same Party Committee or the same revolutionary organization