Satur Ocampo

Saturnino "Satur" Cunanan Ocampo (born April 7, 1939) is a Filipino politician, activist, journalist, and writer.

Satur Ocampo
Member of the Philippine House of Representatives for Bayan Muna
In office
June 30, 2001 – June 30, 2010
Personal details
Born
Saturnino Cunanan Ocampo

(1939-04-07) April 7, 1939
Santa Rita, Pampanga, Commonwealth of the Philippines
NationalityFilipino
Political partyBayan Muna
National Democratic Front (Philippines)
Makabayan Coalition
Other political
affiliations		Bagong Alyansang Makabayan
Nacionalista Party (2010)
Spouse(s)Carolina Malay
ProfessionWriter, journalist

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, 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 congressman, he ran for senator 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, a mainstream Philippine political party whose presidential standard bearer, Senator Manny Villar, they supported.

After the elections, on August 21, 2010, Ocampo started a weekly opinion column in the Philippine Star titled "At Ground Level".

Activism

Ocampo was a business editor of the pre-martial law Manila Times 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 Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law on September 21, 1972 and Ocampo, among others, went underground. In 1973, Ocampo co-founded of the National Democratic Front, 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.[1]

After the dictatorship fell in 1986, President Corazon Aquino called for peace talks with the communists. Ocampo headed the peace negotiating panel of the NDF, which represents the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People's Army. 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, ACT Teacher Rep. France Castro and over 70 others was arrested for kidnapping and human trafficking charges over the transport of Lumad minors from the town of Talaingod, Davao Del Norte. Ocampo's group was released after posting bail amounting of PHP 80,000.00 each.[2]

References
  1. RP alarm for newsman, The Manila Evening Post, May 7, 1985
  2. LOOK: Satur Ocampo, lawmaker charged with kidnapping, human trafficking - ABS-CBN News
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