DAVAO CITY, Philippines – Two Manobo leaders of Surigao del Sur, Michelle Campos and Genasque Enriquez were reportedly arrested by military forces in different dates this week but have not been located, said the human rights group Karapatan. The group said Enriquez was arrested on March 2, 2025, while Campos was arrested at 2 am yesterday, March 6. There are no details as to where these arrests took place.
Campos is a youth leader whose father, Dionel Campos, was one of the three village leaders murdered in the Lianga Massacre of 2015. The paramilitary group Magahat-Bagani, with alleged links to the Philippine Army’s 75th Battalion were implicated in the massacre. Campos figured prominently in the Manilakbayan, a campaign of Lumad leaders in the past decade that exposed militarization in Lumad ancestral lands in Mindanao.
Enriquez is a leader of the group Kasalo or Kahugpungan sa mga Lumadnong Organisasyon and the Mindanao coalition Kalumaran. In 2014, Genasque was arrested but released on bail on charges of murder, which his group said was fabricated.
Both leaders come from Lianga, Surigao del Sur, which was the area of the Lumad school Alcadev which was forcibly closed during the Duterte administration under its red-tagging of Lumad schools.
“We call on military forces to surface Michelle Campos and Genasque Enriquez, and to ensure that they are accorded their rights and personal integrity under the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) and Republic Act No. 9851 or the domestic law implementing the IHL,” Karapatan said in a statement.
This is a developing story.
Alcadev, Genasque Enriquez, Michelle Campos, Surigao del Sur
