Indigenous peoples leader arrested on trumped-up charges

KASALO-Caraga Secretary General, KATRIBU 2nd nominee Genasque Enriquez arrested on trumped up frustrated murder cases

Case:    Political Persecution, Illegal Arrest, Illegal Detention on Trumped Up Charges

Victims: GENASQUE B. ENRIQUEZ

Male, 41 years old, father of 4, Secretary General of Kasalo-Caraga and second nominee of KATRIBU Partylist

Place of Incident:   Dale’s Food House, Rizal St., Surigao City

Date of Incident:    August 22, 2014 at around 1 o’clock in the afternoon

Alleged Perpetrator(s): Philippine National Police-Surigao City, 30th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army, and elements of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group.

Account of the Incident:

At around 1 o’clock in the afternoon of August 22, 2014, GENASQUE B. ENRIQUEZ was arrested in Surigao City, by virtue of an alias warrant of arrest issued against him in March 25, 2013 by the Regional Trial Court Branch 28 of Lianga, Surigao del Sur. Three counts of frustrated murder (Frustrated murder case no. L-2540) have been filed against him by elements of the Philippine Army.

Enriquez was about to leave Dale’s Food House in Rizal St., Surigao City when members of the PNP-Surigao City, 30th IB PA and the CIDG arrested him. Genasque just came from a press conference held by members of the Abolish Pork Movement (APM) and representatives of people’s organizations in Caraga in the same restaurant. The group was scheduled to travel to Cebu City tonight to attend the People’s Congress to Abolish Pork through the People’s Initiative Bill on August 23.

The members of the police, military and the CIDG took Enriquez and brought him to the CIDG detention center at the Surigao City Hall where he is currently detained.

Genasque B. Enriquez is the current Secretary General of Kasalo-Caraga. He has been a victim of intimidation and harassment committed by elements of the Armed Forces of the Philippines operating in Caraga. He has been among those in the forefront to demand the respect of human rights of the indigenous people (IP), expose human rights violations committed by operating troops of the Armed Forces of the Philippines against the indigenous people and communities and protesting against the destruction of ancestral lands by large scale mining operations and plantations. He has been vilified countless times by officials and spokespersons of the AFP on air during radio interviews and in face-to-face negotiations and dialogues.

Kasalo Caraga has been accused without basis for being a front of the CPP-NPA because of its staunch support for grassroots IP organizations,its anti-largescale mining campaign and human rights work.  Enriquez has previously faced trumped up charges of murder and frustrated murder, associating him with known offensives of the NPA which were later dropped by the Office of the Prosecutor and Department of Justice after further investigation.

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 that were the basis of the alias warrant that was served to him during his arrest.

Karapatan-Caraga believes that the charges made against Genasque B. Enriquez are trumped up cases and his subsequent arrest was aimed at silencing him and his organization.
Recommended Action:

Send letters, emails or fax messages calling for:

1. The immediate release of GENASQUE ENRIQUEZ.
2. Immediately withdraw the frustrated murder charges against GENASQUE ENRIQUEZ.
3. Immediately release GENASQUE ENRIQUEZ from detention.
4. The Philippine Government to observe the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and all the major human rights instruments that it is a party and signatory to.
5. To stop political persecution, illegal arrests, detention on perceived enemies of the Philippine Government.

You may send your communications to:

H.E. Benigno C. Aquino III
President of the Republic
Malacañang Palace,
JP Laurel St., San Miguel
Manila Philippines
Voice: (+632) 564 1451 to 80
Fax: (+632) 742-1641 / 929-3968
E-mail: [email protected]

Sec. Teresita Quintos-Deles
Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process
Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP)
7th Floor Agustin Building I
Emerald Avenue
Pasig City 1605
Voice:+63 (2) 636 0701 to 066
Fax:+63 (2) 638 2216
[email protected]

Ret. Lt. Gen. Voltaire T. Gazmin
Secretary, Department of National Defense
Room 301 DND Building, Camp Emilio Aguinaldo,
E. de los Santos Avenue, Quezon City
Voice:+63(2) 911-6193 / 911-0488 / 982-5600
Fax:+63(2) 982-5600
Email: [email protected], [email protected]

Atty. Leila De Lima
Secretary, Department of Justice
Padre Faura St., Manila
Direct Line 521-1908
Trunkline 523-84-81 loc.211/214
Fax: (+632) 523-9548
Email: [email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected]

Hon. Loretta Ann P. Rosales
Chairperson, Commission on Human Rights
SAAC Bldg., UP Complex
Commonwealth Avenue
Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines
Voice: (+632) 928-5655, 926-6188
Fax: (+632) 929 0102
Email: [email protected], [email protected]

Please send us a copy of your email/mail/fax to the above-named government officials, to our addresses below:

KARAPATAN CARAGA
2nd Floor, Gabriela Women’s Resource Center
Fourth Street, Guingona Subdivision
Butuan City 8600
Agusan del Norte
Philippines
[email protected]