Arrested indigenous Lumad leader denied access to lawyers, another still missing

“Until Enriquez is surfaced and Campos is granted immediate access to her family and lawyers, their rights and safety remain at risk,” said the team in a statement.

BUTUAN CITY – Suspected military agents are denying Lumad leader Michelle Campos access to legal counsel, family, and friends, according to an ongoing fact-finding mission in Butuan, Surigao del Sur.

A fact-finding mission team is in Butuan to look into the situation of arrested Lumad leaders Campos and Genasque Enriquez. The mission is composed of members from human rights groups Katribu, Tanggol Magsasaka, Karapatan, and Agham.

Karapatan reported that Campos was arrested at 2:00 a.m., March 6, while Enriquez was arrested on March 2. A Facebook post by the 401st Infantry Brigade claimed that soldiers of 3rd Special Forces Battalion captured Campos and three others while conducting pursuit operations along Barangay Das-agan, San Francisco, Agusan del Sur around midnight on March 6.

The team was able to confirm that Campos is confined at Democrito O. Plaza Memorial Hospital in Barangay Patin-ay, Prosperidad, Agusan del Sur, while Enriquez’s whereabouts remain unknown as of this writing.

The fact-finding team asserts that Campos and Enriquez have the right to access legal counsels, and be visited by their family, friends, and human rights workers.

“Until Enriquez is surfaced and Campos is granted immediate access to her family and lawyers, their rights and safety remain at risk,” said the team in a statement.

Refusal of crucial access, they said, violates the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) and Republic Act No. 9851 or the “Philippine Act on Crimes Against International Humanitarian Law, Genocide, and Other Crimes Against Humanity.”Campos is the daughter of Dionel Campos, one of the community leaders murdered in the Lianga Massacre in 2015. (AMU, RVO)

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