“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.
“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 30th Infantry 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.