Press Statement | Karapatan calls for release of arrested anti-pork activist, indigenous people’s leader in Surigao City

publicinfo: Aug 23 11:16AM +0800  Press Statement August 23, 2014 Reference: Cristina “Tinay” Palabay, Secretary General, +63917-3162831 Angge Santos, Media Liaison, +63918-9790580 http://www.karapatan.org/Karapatan+calls+for+release+of+arrested+anti-pork+activist%2C+indigenous+people%E2%80%99s+leader+in+Surigao+City “Malacañang is a factory of trumped-up charges against activists and those who are demanding that BS Aquino be held accountable for the presidential pork aka DAP,” said Cristina Palabay, Karapatan secretary general when the human rights organization received reports yesterday on the arrest of an anti-pork activist and an indigenous people’s leader in Surigao City Genasque Enriquez, a Manobo leader was arrested yesterday, August 22 at 1:00 p.m. after attending a People’s Congress for People’s Initiative and a press conference in Surigao City. The press conference was a send-off for those attending the People’s Initiative against Pork Barrel today in Cebu City. Enriquez was among the panelists in the press conference. After the send-off, members of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), Philippine National Police-Surigao City and the 30thInfantry Battalion of the Philippine Army (IBPA) seized Enriquez. He was falsely charged with frustrated murder using an alias warrant. He was brought to the CIDG detention center at the Surigao City Hall and later, around 8 p.m., to the Surigao City PNP Jail. “The warrant of arrest used against Enriquez was dated March 25, 2013, issued during the election campaign period, clearly meant to harass and intimidate Enriquez. His arrest yesterday happened as the campaign for People’s Initiative against the pork barrel system is about to take off. *Magsisimula pa lang, pikon na si BS Aquino*,” said Palabay. The People’s Initiative against the Pork Barrel is set to launch a signature campaign at a people’s congress in Cebu City on August 23. Expected to attend are Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma and former Chief Justice Reynato Puno, leaders and members of Karapatan and other progressive people’s organizations, and various anti-pork/anti-DAP groups. Enriquez is the Vice Chairperson of Katribu Partylist and its second nominee in the 2013 elections. He is also the Secretary General of Kasalo-Caraga or the Kahugpungan sa mga Lumadnong Organisasyon-Caraga (Kasalo-Caraga), a regional alliance of Lumad groups in Caraga. An indefatigable leader of indigenous people in the region and at the national level, Enriquez co-headed a delegation of human rights activists, indigenous people, farmers, victims of human rights violations and their kin to Manila in December 2012 to seek justice for human rights abuses under the Aquino administration and to protest the destruction of ancestral lands by large scale mining operations and plantations. Enriquez previously faced trumped up charges of murder and frustrated murder, associating him with known offensives of the New People’s Army, which were later dropped by the Office of the Prosecutor and Department of Justice after further investigation for lack of evidence. As his experience in the previous case he faced, he has not received any notice of complaints filed against him from the Surigao del Sur Prosecutor’s Office, thus depriving him of his right to respond to the complaint as per due process. They failed to inform him of the current cases which were the bases of the alias warrant that was served to him during his arrest. Palabay recalled that the filing of trumped-up charges against activists to arrest and detain them was widely practiced during the Macapagal-Arroyo administration, especially during the period when many political blocs and personalities were calling for her resignation or ouster. “Malacañang is getting desperate to save the sinking ship of BS Aquino, thus it attempts to silence activists via trumped up charges and arrests.We demand that the fabricated criminal charges against Enriquez be dropped and that he be immediately released from detention,” Palabay concluded. -------------------------------------------------------------------- PUBLIC INFORMATION DESKpublicinfo@karapatan.org <publicinfo@karapatan.org> --------------------------------------------------------------------- Alliance for the Advancement of People's Rights 2nd Flr. Erythrina Bldg., #1 Maaralin corner Matatag Sts., Central DistrictDiliman, Quezon City, PHILIPPINES 1101 Telefax: (+63 2) 4354146  Web:http://www.karapatan.org