Saturnino "Satur" Cunanan Ocampo (born April 7, 1939) is a
Filipino politician, activist, journalist, and writer.
As party president and first nominee, he led the party-list group
Bayan Muna in three successful elections in 2001, 2004, and 2007. He was a member of the
House of Representatives
House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ...
, and Deputy Minority Leader in the
14th Congress of the Philippines. He has done work in human rights and other areas.
After his three terms as representative, he ran for
senator
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or Legislative chamber, chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the Ancient Rome, ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior ...
in the
May 2010 elections; then-Representative
Liza Maza of the women's partylist group
GABRIELA and Ocampo were fielded by the Makabayan coalition and were included as guest senatorial candidates of the
Nacionalista Party
The Nacionalista Party (Filipino language, Filipino and Spanish language in the Philippines, Spanish: ''Partido Nacionalista''; , NP) is a political party in the Philippines which is the oldest existing party in the country and in Southeast Asi ...
, a mainstream Philippine political party whose presidential standard bearer, Senator
Manny Villar
Manuel "Manny" Bamba Villar Jr. (; born December 13, 1949) is a Filipino businessman and former politician. He previously served as senator from 2001 to 2013 and as the 20th President of the Senate of the Philippines from 2006 to 2008. Before ...
, they supported.
After the elections, on August 21, 2010, Ocampo started a weekly opinion column in the ''
Philippine Star
''The Philippine Star'' (self-styled ''The Philippine STAR'') is an English-language newspaper in the Philippines and the flagship brand of the Philstar Media Group. First published on July 28, 1986, by veteran journalists Betty Go-Belmonte, ...
'' titled "At Ground Level".
Activism
Ocampo was a business editor of the pre-martial law ''
Manila Times
''The Manila Times'' is the oldest extant English-language newspaper in the Philippines. It is published daily by The Manila Times Publishing Corp. (formerly La Vanguardia Publishing Corporation) with editorial and administrative offices at 2/F ...
'' and was the founder of the Business and Economic Reporters Association of the Philippines. He is a lifetime member of the
National Press Club.
President
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
* President (education), a leader of a college or university
*President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment Film and television
*'' Præsident ...
Ferdinand Marcos
Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos Sr. (September 11, 1917 – September 28, 1989) was a Filipino lawyer, politician, dictator, and Kleptocracy, kleptocrat who served as the tenth president of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. He ruled the c ...
declared
martial law on September 23, 1972, and Ocampo, among others, went underground. In 1973, Ocampo co-founded of the
National Democratic Front (NDF), seeking to unite various anti-dictatorship forces.
In 1976, he was arrested and incarcerated as a political prisoner. For the next nine years he was severely tortured in various prison camps. At one point, he shared a cell with detained ''
Philippine Collegian'' editor-in-chief
Abraham Sarmiento, Jr. Though tried by a military court for rebellion, he was never found guilty. In 1985, while on pass to vote at the National Press Club annual elections, he escaped from the soldiers guarding him and rejoined the underground revolutionary movement. At the time of his escape, Ocampo was the longest-held political prisoner in the country.
After the dictatorship fell in 1986, President
Corazon Aquino
María Corazón "Cory" Sumulong Cojuangco-Aquino (; January 25, 1933 – August 1, 2009) was a Filipino politician who served as the 11th president of the Philippines and the first woman president in the country, from Presidency of Corazon ...
called for peace talks with the communists. Ocampo headed the peace negotiating panel of the NDF, which represents the
Communist Party of the Philippines
The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP; ) is a far-left, Marxist–Leninist–Maoist revolutionary organization and communist party in the Philippines, formed by Jose Maria Sison on 26 December 1968.
The CPP has been fighting a gue ...
and the
New People's Army
The New People's Army (; abbreviated NPA or BHB) is the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). It acts as the CPP's principal organization, aiming to consolidate political power from what it sees as the present "bourgeo ...
. When the talks collapsed due to the killing of 18 farmers at a rally near the
Malacañan Palace on January 22, 1987, Ocampo returned to the underground.
In 1989, he was rearrested together with his wife, Carolina Malay.
Three years later in 1992, a year after his wife was released, he was freed. Neither was found guilty of any crime.
On November 28, 2018, Ocampo,
Alliance of Concerned Teachers
An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or sovereign state, states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not an explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an a ...
Rep.
France Castro and over 70 others were arrested on allegations of kidnapping and human trafficking over the transport of
Lumad
The Lumad are a group of Austronesian indigenous peoples in the southern Philippines. It is a Cebuano term meaning "native" or "indigenous". The term is short for Katawhang Lumad (Literally: "indigenous people"), the autonym officially ado ...
minors from the town of Talaingod, Davao Del Norte. Ocampo's group was released after posting bail of PHP80,000 each.
In July 2024,
Tagum City Regional Trial Court Branch 2 Judge Jimmy Boco sentenced Ocampo, Castro, and 11 others to 4 years to 6 years imprisonment, including P10,000 as civil indemnity and P10,000 as moral damages. The court ruled that the accused known as “Talaingod 18” violated Section 10(a) of
Republic Act 7610, for endangerment of 14 Lumad students of the Salugpongan Ta Tanu Ingkanogan Community Learning Center in
Talaingod, Davao del Norte. Ocampo appealed the decision before the regional trial court.
Human rights groups criticized the decision of the court.
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Headquartered in New York City, the group investigates and reports on issues including War crime, war crimes, crim ...
placed the conviction in the context of
red-tagging and other "bogus" accusations against
Lumad schools in Mindanao. ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights described the verdict as an "absurd decision that has no basis in reality", while ACT-NCR Union said the verdict was dangerous precedent that "criminalizes acts of solidarity and support for marginalized communities".
On December 4, 2024, Ocampo and 74 others with the endorsement of Rep. Castro filed the second
impeachment complaint against Vice President Sara Duterte, citing betrayal of public trust for her office's alleged misuse of confidential funds.
References
External links
Satur Ocampo official profilefrom the
House of Representatives of the Philippines
The House of Representatives (; '','' thus commonly referred to as ''Kamara'') is the lower house of Congress of the Philippines, Congress, the bicameral legislature of the Philippines, with the Senate of the Philippines as the upper house. The ...
Satur Ocampo official profilefrom the Bayan Muna website
Bayan Muna- official website
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ocampo, Satur
1939 births
Living people
Business and financial journalists
Filipino activists
Filipino male journalists
Filipino Roman Catholics
Kapampangan people
Marcos martial law victims
Members of the House of Representatives of the Philippines for Bayan Muna
Nacionalista Party politicians
People from Pampanga
The Philippine Star people
Polytechnic University of the Philippines alumni
Torture_victims