Group of Lawyers Willing to Assist ‘Lumads’ in Mindanao

(PNA) – A group of lawyers has bonded together to assist the indigenous communities in Mindanao who are haunted with separate “massacre” incidents in the past two weeks.

Beverly S. Musni, Secretary General of the Union of Peoples’ Lawyers in Mindanao (UPLM), said that about 100 UPLM lawyers, paralegals, and law students, have volunteered to offer their services to the bereaved families of the alleged massacre victims in the filing of the cases against the suspected perpetrators.

The latest of these incidents involved the killing of three people who belonged to the tribal communities in Lianga, Surigao Del Sur by alleged paramilitary units last August 31, 2015.

The UPLM, however, hailed the filing of the criminal complaints by the Surigao police against the three suspects and 20 others in the Lianga massacre, Musni said.

The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) in Northern Mindanao would also conduct a probe on the reported massacre of five family members, including a 72-year-old blind man in the mountains of Pangantucan, Bukidnon last August 18, 2015.

The military has maintained that based on the findings of the police Scene of the Crime Office (SOCO) in Bukidnon, the killing of the five ‘Lumads’ was due to a legitimate encounter.

“As the peoples’ lawyers, the UPLM will surely take all those believed responsible for these dastardly acts to court, including before international human rights bodies and the international community,” Musni said. (PNA) CTB/CD/MF