“The ruthless manner of Dr. Naty’s arrest sustains the atmosphere of fear that hangs over this administration.”
It must have been a surprise to the authorities concerned when various communities, institutions, and government agencies, as well as members of the public, raised an outcry over the exaggeratedly harsh and chilling arrest of healthcare worker Dr. Ma. Natividad “Naty” Castro last Feb. 18.
Men in plainclothes, who refused to identify themselves, barged into the Castro family home in San Juan City and took Dr. Naty, who was dressed only in house clothes. They didn’t even let her put on shoes. They did not inform family members where they were taking their barefoot captive. Their warrant, laughably, had the wrong name on it – nevertheless, they insisted it was enough to take the good doctor away.
It was only after a frantic 24-hour search by various communities and the Commission on Human Rights that Dr. Naty was found in Bayugan, Agusan del Sur.
In a statement on Feb. 19, the CHR expressed their “grave concern” over the manner of Dr. Naty’s arrest.
“Dra. Naty had been red-tagged for her work as a human rights and development worker,” they wrote, adding that a motu proprio investigation is underway on the reports of “possible violation of the Philippine National Police rules of procedure, among other issues.”
Members of Dr. Naty’s alma maters, St. Scholastica’s College and the University of the Philippines, as well as her friends and family, attested to her hard work in public health and human rights among marginalized communities.
In a statement, the UP College of Medicine Class of 2004 also said that Dr. Naty “embodies all that our alma mater aims to achieve – leadership and excellence in community-oriented medical education directed to the underserved – isang tunay na doktor ng bayan.”
I spoke yesterday to Dr. Naty’s brother Jun, after he attended a presser at the University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital (UP-PGH). With him there were, among others, Sr. M. Christine Pinto, OSB, St. Scholastica’s College president, and Dr. Gerardo Legaspi, UP-PGH director.
Regarding the presser, Jun said Dr. Legaspi spoke about what it is to be a doctor from UP, while Sr. Christine explained about SSC’s motto, “ora et labora” – pray and work. Service to others is a large part of the ethos of both schools, and this became Dr. Naty’s purpose in life. Instead of choosing wealth and comfort as a private doctor, she took the difficult path of a community healthcare worker.
Jun added that the family is holding up, thanks in a large part to the support of family, friends, and the communities that have rallied around them.
All the family wants, he said, is for Dr. Naty to be safe and undergo due process. “We want to ensure her physical safety,” he said. “We want her to be treated well and afforded the proper process.” They fear that she may be taken away again and her whereabouts undisclosed to her family.
The ruthless manner of Dr. Naty’s arrest sustains the atmosphere of fear that hangs over this administration. When a loved one is taken barefoot by authorities and “disappeared,” that stirs up emotions of terror and helpless anger.
All these negative emotions were exacerbated by the statements released today by the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).
According to a post on the SMNI News Channel, one of the agency’s spokespersons, Undersecretary Lorraine Badoy, claimed that Dr. Naty is “ in the inner sanctum of this terrorist organization [rights group Karapatan] 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.”
Really? These claims sound far-fetched and hard to swallow. I await Dr. Naty’s day in court – I would like to see what evidence the government has for saying all of this.
Even the Department of Health expressed concern for Dr. Naty in a statement sent out on Feb. 19 about the “arrest of a medical doctor,” no name given.
It is quite revealing of the tight clutch of this administration that DOH was unable to mention Dr. Naty’s name, but I commend their bravery for still coming out to say that “All our citizens, health workers included, enjoy the constitutional guarantees of due process and presumption of innocence until proven guilty. We trust our authorities to uphold these rights.”
The eyes of the country and the world are on Dr. Naty and the handling of this case. The public is monitoring the authorities’ next move, even as prayers are offered for the good doctor’s health and safety while in their hands.
*** FB and Twitter: @DrJennyO