CHR assists Lumad human trafficking victims in returning to Bukidnon

The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) has provided assistance to 28 Lumad people who escaped after being forced to work 15 hours a day unpaid in a fish pen in Sual, Pangasinan.

In a statement issued on Saturday, CHR spokesperson Atty. Jacqueline Ann De Guia said the commission has launched a motu proprio investigation on an alleged case of human trafficking of Lumad people from Quezon town in Bukidnon after receiving information from various labor groups.

According to De Guia, 34 of the Lumad victims were able to escape from the fish pen where they worked, but only 28 of them went to the CHR's central office in Quezon City to ask for assistance.

The CHR, along with representatives of various groups, then assisted the Lumad victims as they went to the Batasan Police Station 6 so that their complaints could be recorded in the police blotter.

The Commission, as well as the National Commission on Indigenous People, the Department of Social Welfare and Development Central and National Capital Region offices, and other civil society organizations, also provided financial and transportation assistance to the Lumad victims as they go back to Bukidnon.

Apart from the 28 individuals, the CHR, together with the Philippine National Police-Sual, Provincial Social Welfare and Development Office of Pangasinan, and MSWDO-Sual, also rescued 17 Lumad people who were also recruited to work in the same fish pen.

These individuals are now currently staying in a shelter in Lingayen, Pangasinan.

Meanwhile, 10 Lumad victims of human trafficking also escaped from a fish pen in Rosario, La Union employing the same activity. Guia said the CHR office in Region I is now closely monitoring the incident.

The CHR launched the probe in pursuant to its mandate to “provide appropriate legal measures for the protection of human rights of all persons within the Philippines, as well as Filipinos residing abroad, and provide for preventive measures and legal aid services to the under-privileged whose human rights have been violated or need protection.” —Erwin Colcol/KG, GMA News