MANILA, Philippines – (Philippine Daily Inquirer / June 2, 2009) - A Filipino-American activist who went missing for six days has claimed that she was tortured by military operatives and asked the Supreme Court for protection.
In her petition for a Writ of Amparo, Melissa Roxas said she was detained blindfolded and in handcuffs in what she presumed was Fort Magsaysay in Laur town, Nueva Ecija province, a major military camp in the north.
There, Roxas said her captors repeatedly told her that she was being held because she was a member of the CPP-NPA (Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army).
Fort Magsaysay is over an hour-long drive from La Paz town, Tarlac province, where Roxas and two other left-wing activists, Juanito Carabeo and Edward Jandoc, were abducted last May 19. Jandoc remains missing.
Named respondents in Roxas’ petition were: President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr., Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Chief of Staff General Victor Ibrado, Philippine National Police Chief Director General Jesus Verzosa, and Army Chief Lieutenant General Delfin Bangit.
Roxas’ lawyer, Rex Fernandez, filed the petition before the high tribunal on Tuesday.
“The distance of the travel and the sounds heard by petitioner [Roxas] in the place where the petitioner and the two men were brought, as well as the buildings described by petitioner, are places inside Fort Magsaysay,” according to the petition.
Roxas recounted her ordeal in the petition, saying: “I heard construction activities – blowtorching, hammering and the construction bustle – and these stopped in the late afternoon and I also heard gun firing as though in a firing range and planes taking off and landing and it was loud and I could also hear goats bleating.”
The activist said she slept light on her first night there, and in the morning, she was interrogated without being served breakfast or lunch. She said she was also not allowed to see a lawyer.
“I was asked repeatedly if I knew why I was there and was told by them that I was abducted because I was a member of the CPP-NPA,” she said.
She said her captors told her that “it was because of people like me who are costing the government so much money and people like me are the ones who are making it difficult for the government.”
Roxas said several men took turns in interrogating her, including a certain RC and a certan Dex, whom she called as her "religious interrogators" because they only discussed religion and the evils of communism to her.
She said she sought for a certain Rose, the female in the next barracks who helped her take a bath, with the plan of finally talking to her, "to delay the expected torture."
Throughout the interrogation, Roxas refused to talk and kept telling the men that she had rights.
“I did not answer and he would hit me on the chest strongly and I would lose breath and gasped for air after and then he would press my throat with his thumb and say ‘Huh…huh…huh!’ and I would gag and then he would hit me on my jaws, ringing my ears and numbing my jaws,” Roxas said.
“I would see a flash of white bright light and ringing in my ears and again the pressure to my throat with the ‘Huh … huh…huh.’ And saying to me, ‘ayaw mo pa din magsasalita [you still don’t want to talk]’ and then punched me in my rib cage and I crumpled but the other men forced me up. This torture continued and every time I crumpled the other men would force me up,” she said in a sworn affidavit.
Roxas continued, “I was having a streaming thought that I was going to die there and then, they held my feet and my hands down and doubled up plastic bags were pulled down on my head and face and closed on my neck and I started to suffocate and I could not breath anymore and I was seeing white and thinking I was going to die and then he released the hold and I could breathe but I was faint and weak [lantang lanta] and he patted me in the back and several men carried me to my cell.”
She said she was asked to sign a document and when she refused to, she was brought to another room where the interrogator “gripped and pressed my right shoulder hard.”
“It was very painful because there was a dislocation and he knew I had that dislocation and when he was telling me that I was hardheaded he pounded his pointer finger on my forehead and it hurt," she said.
When she was released, Roxas said her captors gave her a SIM card so that they could contact her. As they dropped her off a few feet from her house, she said her captors also warned her against contacting the human rights group Karapatan.
She said her abductors also warned her that they would monitor all her movements. They also took her memory card, iPod music player, laptop, journal, sphygmomanometer, stethoscope and P15,000 in cash.
“I was so afraid to go out believing that they were just around monitoring me that I just stayed inside the room not even going out of that room…” she said.
Roxas said her cousin threw away the SIM card but she kept the clothes, handcuffs, and a piece of paper containing an email address and password that her captors had created for her, which would be used as evidence.
“There is credible basis to say that Melissa was abducted by the military as part of the government’s counter-insurgency operations. The abduction and torture were clear violations of her rights. It is despicable and those involved must be made accountable,” said Bayan secretary general Renato Reyes, Jr.
Reyes said that the matter has been brought to the attention of the US embassy in Manila.
Roxas bore bruises when she was surfaced last week, said Doctor Reggie Pumagas of the Health Action for Human Rights. (By Tetch Torres, Thea Alberto, Lira Dalangin-Fernandez / INQUIRER.net)
Link: http://globalnation.inquirer.net/news/news/view/20090602-208434/FilAm-activist-accuses-military-of-torture
Showing posts with label Army. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Army. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 02, 2009
FilAm activist accuses military of torture
Sunday, February 08, 2009
Mindanao Refugees Still Scared To Go Back Home
MAGUINDANAO, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Feb. 08, 2009) - Filipino war refugees who returned to their homes last week now said they want to go back to the evacuation centers because of fears of renewed clashes between the military and Moro rebels.
"The internally-displaced persons are afraid of the presence of soldiers who continued to stay in their villages, some even sleeping right inside the houses of residents," said Teren Talusan, a councilor from the
For them to be able to return home safely, the IDPs are demanding a complete pull-out of the military in their villages. They are also calling for the resumption of the peace talks between the Arroyo government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and that ceasefire mechanisms be restored as soon as possible.
These calls were reiterated by local civil society organizations, including the Consortium of Bangsamoro Civil Society-Kutawato Regional Management Committee (CBCS-KRMC),
The IDPs also urged the strict observance of the UN Guiding Principles for Internal Displacement, citing several principles that ensure protection and safety of IDPs including Principle 28.
Principle 28 states that it is the primary duty and responsibility of authorities to first establish the conditions and the means allowing IDPs to return to their homes in safety and with dignity.
About 60 families from the
Many, however, left some of their children behind the evacuation centers as they still fear for their safety.
Musib Uy Tan, executive assistant to the town mayor, said they the Municipal Peace and Order Council (MPOC) declared it safe for the refugees to return home.
The MPOC also declared safe the villages of Dado, Liong, Masigay Alonganen, Balanaken and Butilen.
Tan clarified that the evacuees were never forced to return. "Their safety is our utmost concern. We will never allow them to be put in danger," he said.
The IDPs said they saw soldiers in their villages and their presence raised fears that if fighting erupts they could be trapped or caught in the crossfire.
"With soldiers around, you could not tell when there would be attacks," said Syrianbai Sangcupan, a resident of Dado village. "We pray that the military will leave so that we will have normal lives again."
The number of IDPs in Datu Piang is now estimated to be more than 5,200 families, down from 9,225 families at the height of the fighting in October last year.
More than half a million people were displaced in Central Mindanao due to fighting between Philippine government forces and the MILF following the collapse of the peace talks in July last year. (Suara nu Maginged Media Services)
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Troops Put Up Checkpoints, Secure Highway From Lawless Groups In Mindanao
Government soldiers inspect vehicles passing in front of the Army's 104th Infantry Brigade in Iligan City in the southern Philippines.ILIGAN CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Nov. 27, 2008) – Army soldiers have put up checkpoints on a highway connecting the cities of Iligan and Marawi as part a security measure aimed at securing the safety of motorists and travelers from lawless groups.
Army Col. Benito de Leon, commander of the 104th Infantry Brigade, said villagers have sought the help of authorities and urged the military and police to put up roadblocks and checkpoints after the presence of gunmen were reported along the stretch of the highway.
“These checkpoints would curb those who plan to impersonate persons in authority, and allow the military to monitor the passage of security forces. Certain individuals were also reported carrying firearms without authority and even on board government vehicles or ambulances, hence the checkpoints,” De Leon said.
The checkpoints, he said, were intended to complement police enforcement activities and contribute to peace and order in the two areas.
De Leon assured the public that soldiers manning the checkpoints would not violate rights of civilians. He advised drivers of vehicle approaching a checkpoint to slow down and prepare to stop if signaled; dim their lights; open their windows; and turn on their cabin lights.
“Rest assured that we will establish any security arrangement allowed by our laws and regulations, including the conduct of checkpoints, if only to protect the people we are duty-bound to serve,” De Leon said. (With a report from Merlyn Manos)
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Photo: Army Patrol In Sulu Province
A former Moro National Liberation Front rebel-turned-government soldier join government troops in patrolling Sulu province, where Abu Sayyaf militants ambushed Nov. 18, 2008 a Philippine and US military convoy in Indanan town, although no soldiers were killed or injured. (Mindanao Examiner Photo)
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Body believed to be of missing UP students exhumed in Pangasinan
The female body believed to belong to one of the missing University of the Philippines students was exhumed Thursday in Labrador, Pangasinan for DNA examination.
It was brothers Raymond and Reynaldo Manalo, who were allegedly abducted by the military on February 2006, who told human rights group Karapatan that a body of a woman burned found in Labrador in August 2007 could belong to Sherilyn Cadapan.
Cadapan and fellow UP student Karen Empeño and farmer Manuel Merino were abducted allegedly by the military. The three were reportedly seen in the rest house of Master Sergeant Donald Caigas of the 24th Infantry Battalion in Barangay Banog, Bolinao, Pangasinan in 2006.
The Commission on Human Rights, some forensic experts and families of Cadapan and Empeño were present when the burned body was exhumed.
The body will be flown to Manila to gather DNA samples.
Forensics experts from the National Science Research Institute of the University of the Philippines (UP-NSRI) and the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) were the ones set to gather the DNA samples.
The UP-NSRI team was said to be headed by forensics experts Dr. Ma. Corazon Ungria and Dr. Raquel Fortun, while the CHR group is led by Dr. Renante Basas. Human rights group Karapatan also brought in Philippine Health Alliance for Human Rights medical expert Dr. Reginald Pamugas.
The Manalo brothers raised this possibility after Manuel Merino, a farmer who was reportedly abducted with Cadapan and fellow UP student Karen Empeño, was purportedly burned by members of the military in Limay, Bataan in November 2006. Raymond said he witnessed the killing of Merino.
Reports of sightings of Cadapan, Empeno and Merino in the rest house of Master Sergeant Donald Caigas of the 24th IB at Barangay Banog, Bolinao, Pangasinan in 2006 also pushed Erlinda Cadapan, mother of Sherlyn, to request for the DNA examination.
Karapatan said that the delayed response from CHR stalled the examination. Public information officer Ruth Cervantes stated that they requested assistance from CHR in October last year, but did not receive any feedback.
Erlinda then sought the help of NSRI in December. NSRI agreed to dispatch their forensics team, but also required the participation of CHR. They said that government representation is part of the protocol in cases where the body is still unidentified.
Search for missing UP students, farmer may end in Bataan
Hopes of finding the remains of two missing UP students and other victims of extra-judicial killings were raised Monday after a former military detachment in Bataan was identified as the place where they may have been killed or buried.
Raymond Manalo, who escaped from an alleged forced detention by elements of the 56th Infantry Batallion of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), led a fact-finding team Monday in identifying three graves of possible victims of extra-judicial kilings in a purported former Army detachment here in barangay Bliss, Limay, Bataan.
Manalo said one of these graves is where Manuel Merino, a farmer who was reportedly abducted by the military along with missing UP students Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeño last June 2006, was buried.
Manalo said he saw members of the 24th Infantry Batallion burn Merino's dead body in a vacant area inside this former Army detachment in Bataan.
"The soldiers led Tatay Manuel [Merino] out of the room where they held us in chains. They said [Gen.] Palparan is just going to talk to him," Manalo said in relating the incident. After a few minutes, however, Manalo heard somebody groan followed by gunshots. Merino was reportedly killed June 10, 2007.
Manalo and his brother, Reynaldo, were allegedly seized by members of the 56th Infantry Batallion on February 14, 2006. They stayed in this Bataan detachment along with Merino, Cadapan, and Empeño from November 2006 to June 2007.
The excavation in this village in Bataan is expected to be finished tomorrow.
If a body is found in one of the graves, it will be sent to the National Forensic Science Research Training Institute for DNA examination.
Forensic pathologist Dr. Rachel Fortun of the University of the Philippines will oversee the DNA testing.
Search for evidence
In a press statement, the human rights group, Karapatan, said Raymond provided them with a sketch of the site where "according to the survivor, he saw Merino being burned and where other captives were killed or brought dead by soldiers."
The Commmission on Human Rights Chair Leila de Lima and representatives of the Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights joined the fact-finding team led by Karapatan.
"Excavation will be made in search of evidence that could further corroborate the credible testimony of Manalo and help trace the victims and their identities," Karapatan secretary-general Marie Hilao-Enriquez and public information officer Ruth Cervantes, said.
"Manalo's survival is strong evidence that state security forces who formerly occupied the site have used the place as detention area as well as a place to torture and keep incommunicado the victims of enforced disappearance," they said.
The Supreme Court recently upheld a Court of Appeals (CA) ruling which granted a writ of amparo to "escaped desparacidos" Raymond Manalo and his brother, Reynaldo.
The two escaped from their "military abductors after 18 months of detention," Karapatan said.
The CA decision had said "there is now a clear and credible evidence that the three missing persons, Sherlyn Cadapan, Karen Empeño and Manuel Merino, are being detained in military camps and bases under the 7th Infantry Division. Being not held for lawful cause, they should be immediately released from detention."
Karapatan said that "three days after [the CA decision], on September 20, the Philippine Army spokesperson, Lt. Col. Romeo Brawner issued a statement that the three missing persons were nowhere to be found in any Army camp where their relatives and supporters claimed they were detained."
Survivor revisits site where UP students abducted
Manuel Merino reportedly died a few steps away from the last place where he spent most of his remaining days– in a kitchen, where he and fellow alleged abductee Raymond Manalo cooked adobo and kaldereta for the soldiers of the 24th Infantry Battalion in a makeshift detachment at Barangay Bliss, Limay, Bataan.
“We were assigned to cook,” Manalo said. “We made viands from the cows that the soldiers stole,” he told abs-cbnnews.com/Newsbreak.
Aside from preparing and serving meals, the two of them, along with Manalo’s brother Reynaldo, also cleaned the 300-500 square meter camp and gathered firewood.
The Manalo brothers met Merino in the camp at the same time they were introduced to missing UP students and suspected New People’s Army members Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeño. That was in November 2006.
Cadapan, Empeño and Merino were reportedly abducted by members of the military in Hagonoy, Bulacan on June 26, 2006.
Raymond and his brother were allegedly seized from their house in Idlefonso, Bulacan by suspected members of the civilian armed forces geographical unit on February 14 of the same year.
Based on Raymond’s account, the five of them separately made the rounds of the military’s camps and safe houses in Central Luzon before they were taken to the detachment in Barangay Bliss where they spent around seven months holed up in huts that they themselves made.
Almost two years after, however, only one of them would return to the camp alive. The Manalo brothers were able to escape from their captors in July last year.
Raymond retraced his steps to the Bataan detachment Monday to look for the body of his fellow “cook” and friend, whom he fondly calls ‘Tay Manuel.
What detachment?
Death seemed close, according to Raymond, two days after Cadapan and Empeño disappeared from the camp in the first week of June 2007.
“Karen and Sherlyn were put in a bodega (storage room) where their feet were both chained. I saw them because I brought them food,” he said.
Raymond marked the torture site in the almost nonexistent camp Monday, one of the almost 15 areas he located in the green expanse where the detachment was built.
Some of the markers read “kubo ni Kim,” “kubo ni Robin,” kubo ni Edwin and Marnak,” with the names standing as pseudonyms for the soldiers who allegedly held them captive.
The bodega was sandwiched between two mango trees. Raymond said it was the only structure made of hollow blocks, as the rest were made of bamboo and cogon.
The other one which was also made of concrete material was the place of Master Sgt. Donald Caigas in the detachment. “He was the boss in the camp,” Raymond said.
These materials were hardly present in the area, however. Aside from one or two slabs of cement that stuck out from an otherwise prevalent mass of brown soil, there were no other signs which showed that a camp did exist in Barangay Bliss.
It was the same argument that the Armed Forces of the Philippines would raise. They denied that they had a camp in the said site.
Last July 2008, when Leny and Lolita Robiños inspected army camps in Bataan to look for their relative Romulos Robiños and friend Ryan Supan, both reportedly abducted by elements of the 69th IB in Angeles City, Pampanga on November 17, 2006, local army members crossed out Barangay Bliss from their list.
“They were told that the army only has one camp in Bataan. That’s in Barangay Dalae,” Ruth Cervantes, spokesperson of human rights group Karapatan said. Karapatan is currently helping the families of Robiños, Cadapan, Empeño and other loved ones of alleged members of human rights violations find their missing kin.
But Raymond was adamant. He said that he could clearly recall each nook and cranny of the detachment, from the hut where they slept, to the area where Merino was allegedly burnt and buried.
Private land
The detachment, however, was never really that of the army’s, or at least the land where it was built.
One of the reasons why the excavation did not easily push through was the Commission on Human Rights (CHR), the government agency which has the authority to probe human rights violations, had a hard time ascertaining who the owner of the camp site is.
“Lands where camps stood are not owned by the military. They are just leased to them. Sometimes there would not even be lease documents,” CHR Chairperson Leila de Lima explained.
Cervantes said that they requested for assistance in the fact-finding mission from the CHR in a dialogue with De Lima last July. After three weeks without response, they sought additional help from Sen. Francis ‘Chiz’ Escudero, who heads the Senate human rights committee.
CHR and the Senate committee on human rights eventually found out who the owner was and asked for his permission to dig his land to search for Merino’s body.
It was not clear, however, if the owner of the land knew that the land he leased to the army was turned into a camp site.
Local folks in Limay reportedly said that they saw soldiers enter the area. SPO1 Honorio Esplena, one of the police officers who guarded the site during the excavation earlier, said that he did hear people talk about a detachment site in Barangay Bliss.
He, however, did not personally see it nor did he chance upon any soldier who belonged to the 24th IB.
No family
Now with thick foliage surrounding the area, it’s almost hard to see the far end of the site, a good 20 meters away from the supposed gate one of the detachment, where Merino was allegedly buried.
But Raymond said there was not much grass and plants last year, not enough to block his view of the camp’s exit, at least.
“I could see through the space in the bodega’s ceiling,” Raymond said, as he relayed what transpired the night Merino died.
After Cadapan and Empeño disappeared from the camp, the three of them – Raymond, Reynaldo and Merino – replaced them in the storage room. They were also bound in chains, he added.
They were in the room less than two nights. Then Merino was dragged outside, naked, handcuffed and blindfolded. Raymond said he heard the soldiers told the distressed farmer that then Maj. Gen. Palparan would just talk to him. He was led to the second guard house, which was just a stone’s throw away from the kitchen.
But Merino never returned. The last time Raymond saw him, his body was allegedly engulfed in flames.
Raymond easily saw the spot where Merino was reportedly buried. He went on to identify two other graves, which were almost 5-10 meters away from each other.
The 27-year-old Bulacan native said that he witnessed the soldiers of the 24th IB bring 6-8 people to the camp, some of them already dead, some of them yet to be allegedly killed, raising the possibility that other bodies could be found in the area.
As of Monday, items such as shoes, seven bottles, and burnt cloth were found from two of the sites. No body has yet been found.
Aside from Raymond, however, no other person has expressed an earnest desire to recover Merino’s body. Cervantes said that up until now, no one has stepped forward and introduced themselves as Merino’s family member or friend.
“It’s hard to locate his family. Remember that we just included him in the petition for the writ of amparo for Cadapan and Empeño because no one would file a petition for him,” she said.
Closure
The current fact-finding mission came seven months after a cadaver believed to be either that of Cadapan and Empeño was exhumed in Barangay Bolo, Pangasinan.
Results of a DNA examination by the University of the Philippines-Natural Science Research Institute revealed that it belonged to neither, however.
Dr. Rachel Fortun would oversee the DNA testing of the bodies that would be found in Limay, Bataan.
Erlinda Cadapan and Concepcion Empeño, mothers of the two missing UP students, said they are prepared to see the bodies of their daughters from the graves.
“We have already accepted the fact they could already be gone,” Empeño said. “What we need now is just closure.”
For Raymond, however, closure could come only in two ways: that Merino’s body be found, and the military admit that it once used Barangay Bliss, Limay, Bataan as a prison for their alleged captives. (With reports from Atom Araullo and Purple Romero / ABS-CBN, Newsbreak)
It was brothers Raymond and Reynaldo Manalo, who were allegedly abducted by the military on February 2006, who told human rights group Karapatan that a body of a woman burned found in Labrador in August 2007 could belong to Sherilyn Cadapan.
Cadapan and fellow UP student Karen Empeño and farmer Manuel Merino were abducted allegedly by the military. The three were reportedly seen in the rest house of Master Sergeant Donald Caigas of the 24th Infantry Battalion in Barangay Banog, Bolinao, Pangasinan in 2006.
The Commission on Human Rights, some forensic experts and families of Cadapan and Empeño were present when the burned body was exhumed.
The body will be flown to Manila to gather DNA samples.
Forensics experts from the National Science Research Institute of the University of the Philippines (UP-NSRI) and the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) were the ones set to gather the DNA samples.
The UP-NSRI team was said to be headed by forensics experts Dr. Ma. Corazon Ungria and Dr. Raquel Fortun, while the CHR group is led by Dr. Renante Basas. Human rights group Karapatan also brought in Philippine Health Alliance for Human Rights medical expert Dr. Reginald Pamugas.
The Manalo brothers raised this possibility after Manuel Merino, a farmer who was reportedly abducted with Cadapan and fellow UP student Karen Empeño, was purportedly burned by members of the military in Limay, Bataan in November 2006. Raymond said he witnessed the killing of Merino.
Reports of sightings of Cadapan, Empeno and Merino in the rest house of Master Sergeant Donald Caigas of the 24th IB at Barangay Banog, Bolinao, Pangasinan in 2006 also pushed Erlinda Cadapan, mother of Sherlyn, to request for the DNA examination.
Karapatan said that the delayed response from CHR stalled the examination. Public information officer Ruth Cervantes stated that they requested assistance from CHR in October last year, but did not receive any feedback.
Erlinda then sought the help of NSRI in December. NSRI agreed to dispatch their forensics team, but also required the participation of CHR. They said that government representation is part of the protocol in cases where the body is still unidentified.
Search for missing UP students, farmer may end in Bataan
Hopes of finding the remains of two missing UP students and other victims of extra-judicial killings were raised Monday after a former military detachment in Bataan was identified as the place where they may have been killed or buried.
Raymond Manalo, who escaped from an alleged forced detention by elements of the 56th Infantry Batallion of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), led a fact-finding team Monday in identifying three graves of possible victims of extra-judicial kilings in a purported former Army detachment here in barangay Bliss, Limay, Bataan.
Manalo said one of these graves is where Manuel Merino, a farmer who was reportedly abducted by the military along with missing UP students Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeño last June 2006, was buried.
Manalo said he saw members of the 24th Infantry Batallion burn Merino's dead body in a vacant area inside this former Army detachment in Bataan.
"The soldiers led Tatay Manuel [Merino] out of the room where they held us in chains. They said [Gen.] Palparan is just going to talk to him," Manalo said in relating the incident. After a few minutes, however, Manalo heard somebody groan followed by gunshots. Merino was reportedly killed June 10, 2007.
Manalo and his brother, Reynaldo, were allegedly seized by members of the 56th Infantry Batallion on February 14, 2006. They stayed in this Bataan detachment along with Merino, Cadapan, and Empeño from November 2006 to June 2007.
The excavation in this village in Bataan is expected to be finished tomorrow.
If a body is found in one of the graves, it will be sent to the National Forensic Science Research Training Institute for DNA examination.
Forensic pathologist Dr. Rachel Fortun of the University of the Philippines will oversee the DNA testing.
Search for evidence
In a press statement, the human rights group, Karapatan, said Raymond provided them with a sketch of the site where "according to the survivor, he saw Merino being burned and where other captives were killed or brought dead by soldiers."
The Commmission on Human Rights Chair Leila de Lima and representatives of the Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights joined the fact-finding team led by Karapatan.
"Excavation will be made in search of evidence that could further corroborate the credible testimony of Manalo and help trace the victims and their identities," Karapatan secretary-general Marie Hilao-Enriquez and public information officer Ruth Cervantes, said.
"Manalo's survival is strong evidence that state security forces who formerly occupied the site have used the place as detention area as well as a place to torture and keep incommunicado the victims of enforced disappearance," they said.
The Supreme Court recently upheld a Court of Appeals (CA) ruling which granted a writ of amparo to "escaped desparacidos" Raymond Manalo and his brother, Reynaldo.
The two escaped from their "military abductors after 18 months of detention," Karapatan said.
The CA decision had said "there is now a clear and credible evidence that the three missing persons, Sherlyn Cadapan, Karen Empeño and Manuel Merino, are being detained in military camps and bases under the 7th Infantry Division. Being not held for lawful cause, they should be immediately released from detention."
Karapatan said that "three days after [the CA decision], on September 20, the Philippine Army spokesperson, Lt. Col. Romeo Brawner issued a statement that the three missing persons were nowhere to be found in any Army camp where their relatives and supporters claimed they were detained."
Survivor revisits site where UP students abducted
Manuel Merino reportedly died a few steps away from the last place where he spent most of his remaining days– in a kitchen, where he and fellow alleged abductee Raymond Manalo cooked adobo and kaldereta for the soldiers of the 24th Infantry Battalion in a makeshift detachment at Barangay Bliss, Limay, Bataan.
“We were assigned to cook,” Manalo said. “We made viands from the cows that the soldiers stole,” he told abs-cbnnews.com/Newsbreak.
Aside from preparing and serving meals, the two of them, along with Manalo’s brother Reynaldo, also cleaned the 300-500 square meter camp and gathered firewood.
The Manalo brothers met Merino in the camp at the same time they were introduced to missing UP students and suspected New People’s Army members Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeño. That was in November 2006.
Cadapan, Empeño and Merino were reportedly abducted by members of the military in Hagonoy, Bulacan on June 26, 2006.
Raymond and his brother were allegedly seized from their house in Idlefonso, Bulacan by suspected members of the civilian armed forces geographical unit on February 14 of the same year.
Based on Raymond’s account, the five of them separately made the rounds of the military’s camps and safe houses in Central Luzon before they were taken to the detachment in Barangay Bliss where they spent around seven months holed up in huts that they themselves made.
Almost two years after, however, only one of them would return to the camp alive. The Manalo brothers were able to escape from their captors in July last year.
Raymond retraced his steps to the Bataan detachment Monday to look for the body of his fellow “cook” and friend, whom he fondly calls ‘Tay Manuel.
What detachment?
Death seemed close, according to Raymond, two days after Cadapan and Empeño disappeared from the camp in the first week of June 2007.
“Karen and Sherlyn were put in a bodega (storage room) where their feet were both chained. I saw them because I brought them food,” he said.
Raymond marked the torture site in the almost nonexistent camp Monday, one of the almost 15 areas he located in the green expanse where the detachment was built.
Some of the markers read “kubo ni Kim,” “kubo ni Robin,” kubo ni Edwin and Marnak,” with the names standing as pseudonyms for the soldiers who allegedly held them captive.
The bodega was sandwiched between two mango trees. Raymond said it was the only structure made of hollow blocks, as the rest were made of bamboo and cogon.
The other one which was also made of concrete material was the place of Master Sgt. Donald Caigas in the detachment. “He was the boss in the camp,” Raymond said.
These materials were hardly present in the area, however. Aside from one or two slabs of cement that stuck out from an otherwise prevalent mass of brown soil, there were no other signs which showed that a camp did exist in Barangay Bliss.
It was the same argument that the Armed Forces of the Philippines would raise. They denied that they had a camp in the said site.
Last July 2008, when Leny and Lolita Robiños inspected army camps in Bataan to look for their relative Romulos Robiños and friend Ryan Supan, both reportedly abducted by elements of the 69th IB in Angeles City, Pampanga on November 17, 2006, local army members crossed out Barangay Bliss from their list.
“They were told that the army only has one camp in Bataan. That’s in Barangay Dalae,” Ruth Cervantes, spokesperson of human rights group Karapatan said. Karapatan is currently helping the families of Robiños, Cadapan, Empeño and other loved ones of alleged members of human rights violations find their missing kin.
But Raymond was adamant. He said that he could clearly recall each nook and cranny of the detachment, from the hut where they slept, to the area where Merino was allegedly burnt and buried.
Private land
The detachment, however, was never really that of the army’s, or at least the land where it was built.
One of the reasons why the excavation did not easily push through was the Commission on Human Rights (CHR), the government agency which has the authority to probe human rights violations, had a hard time ascertaining who the owner of the camp site is.
“Lands where camps stood are not owned by the military. They are just leased to them. Sometimes there would not even be lease documents,” CHR Chairperson Leila de Lima explained.
Cervantes said that they requested for assistance in the fact-finding mission from the CHR in a dialogue with De Lima last July. After three weeks without response, they sought additional help from Sen. Francis ‘Chiz’ Escudero, who heads the Senate human rights committee.
CHR and the Senate committee on human rights eventually found out who the owner was and asked for his permission to dig his land to search for Merino’s body.
It was not clear, however, if the owner of the land knew that the land he leased to the army was turned into a camp site.
Local folks in Limay reportedly said that they saw soldiers enter the area. SPO1 Honorio Esplena, one of the police officers who guarded the site during the excavation earlier, said that he did hear people talk about a detachment site in Barangay Bliss.
He, however, did not personally see it nor did he chance upon any soldier who belonged to the 24th IB.
No family
Now with thick foliage surrounding the area, it’s almost hard to see the far end of the site, a good 20 meters away from the supposed gate one of the detachment, where Merino was allegedly buried.
But Raymond said there was not much grass and plants last year, not enough to block his view of the camp’s exit, at least.
“I could see through the space in the bodega’s ceiling,” Raymond said, as he relayed what transpired the night Merino died.
After Cadapan and Empeño disappeared from the camp, the three of them – Raymond, Reynaldo and Merino – replaced them in the storage room. They were also bound in chains, he added.
They were in the room less than two nights. Then Merino was dragged outside, naked, handcuffed and blindfolded. Raymond said he heard the soldiers told the distressed farmer that then Maj. Gen. Palparan would just talk to him. He was led to the second guard house, which was just a stone’s throw away from the kitchen.
But Merino never returned. The last time Raymond saw him, his body was allegedly engulfed in flames.
Raymond easily saw the spot where Merino was reportedly buried. He went on to identify two other graves, which were almost 5-10 meters away from each other.
The 27-year-old Bulacan native said that he witnessed the soldiers of the 24th IB bring 6-8 people to the camp, some of them already dead, some of them yet to be allegedly killed, raising the possibility that other bodies could be found in the area.
As of Monday, items such as shoes, seven bottles, and burnt cloth were found from two of the sites. No body has yet been found.
Aside from Raymond, however, no other person has expressed an earnest desire to recover Merino’s body. Cervantes said that up until now, no one has stepped forward and introduced themselves as Merino’s family member or friend.
“It’s hard to locate his family. Remember that we just included him in the petition for the writ of amparo for Cadapan and Empeño because no one would file a petition for him,” she said.
Closure
The current fact-finding mission came seven months after a cadaver believed to be either that of Cadapan and Empeño was exhumed in Barangay Bolo, Pangasinan.
Results of a DNA examination by the University of the Philippines-Natural Science Research Institute revealed that it belonged to neither, however.
Dr. Rachel Fortun would oversee the DNA testing of the bodies that would be found in Limay, Bataan.
Erlinda Cadapan and Concepcion Empeño, mothers of the two missing UP students, said they are prepared to see the bodies of their daughters from the graves.
“We have already accepted the fact they could already be gone,” Empeño said. “What we need now is just closure.”
For Raymond, however, closure could come only in two ways: that Merino’s body be found, and the military admit that it once used Barangay Bliss, Limay, Bataan as a prison for their alleged captives. (With reports from Atom Araullo and Purple Romero / ABS-CBN, Newsbreak)
Monday, August 27, 2007
Elite Army Forces Hunt Down Sayyaf In South RP
BASILAN ISLAND, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / 2 Aug) – Army forces on Monday pursued Abu Sayyaf militants blamed for the wounding of two soldiers in a clash in the southern Filipino island of Basilan, a military spokesman said.
“Scout Rangers and Special Forces are pursuing the terrorists in Basilan. The order is to get the Abu Sayyaf rain or shine and we will get them,” Army Major Eugene Batara said told the Mindanao Examiner.
He said two soldiers were wounded in fighting late Sunday in Basilan’s Ungkaya Pukan town. There were no reports of Abu Sayyaf casualties, he said.
Fifteen soldiers were killed also in the same town on Aug. 18 after Abu Sayyaf militants, whose group is tied to al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiya, ambushed them.
The fighting in Basilan began July 10 after the Abu Sayyaf and the larger Moro Islamic Liberation Front where implicated in an ambush that left 14 Marines dead in Al-Barka town.
The soldiers strayed into an MILF territory in search for Abu Sayyaf leader Isnilon Hapilon, who is wanted both by the Philippines and United States for kidnapping four American citizens, two of them were later killed.
Security officials previously said that troops were searching for a kidnapped Italian Catholic priest Giancarlo Bossi who was not in Basilan, but in Lanao del Norte province.
The Abu Sayyaf is on the U.S. terrorist lists and Washington offered up to $5 million dollars bounty for the capture of Hapilon and other known terror leaders.
Philippine authorities also put up a P100 million rewards for capture dead of alive of Abu Sayyaf leaders.
A bomb blast last week in Zamboanga City left at least 14 people wounded and that attack was also blamed to the Abu Sayyaf group.
Aside from the Abu Sayyaf, Filipino troops, backed by U.S. intelligence, are also tracking down several Jemaah Islamiya bombers, including Indonesians Dulmatin and Umar Patek and Malaysian Zulkifli bin Hir hiding in southern Philippines.
President Gloria Arroyo ordered the military to destroy the Abu Sayyaf and their allies. Moro rebels were said to be aiding the Abu Sayyaf, the military said. (Mindanao Examiner)
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
4 Insurgents Killed In Bicol Region
MANILA (Mindanao Examiner / 24 Jul) – Government soldiers killed four communist insurgents in a clash in the outskirts of Sorsogon City in the Bicol region in Luzon island, officials said Tuesday.
The fighting broke out after troops, from the Army’s 22nd Infantry Battalion, raided a hideout of the New People’s Army in the village of Salvacion on Monday.
Soldiers also recovered three M16 and an M1 rifles from the slain insurgents, including a paid of radio transceivers and anti-government propaganda.
The NPA is the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines, which is fighting for the establishment of a Maoist state in the country. There was no immediate statement from either the CPP or the NPA. (Juley Reyes)
Monday, July 09, 2007
6 Soldiers Implicated In Disappearance of Activist In Philippines
MANILA (Mindanao Examiner / 09 Jul) – Six government soldiers suspected as behind the disappearance of a political activists in the Philippines were ordered investigated on Monday.
Senior State Prosecutor Emmanuel Velasco, of the Presidential Task Force Against Media Harassment, ordered the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to summon the soldiers to shed light on the disappearance of Jonas Burgos.
Burgos was seized in April this year at a restaurant in Quezon City. His family accused the military as behind the abduction.
“My son Jonas, according to witnesses, was forcibly taken by a group of six males and one female while he was having lunch at the Hapag Kainan Restaurant in Ever Gotesco Mall, Commonwealth Avenue, Quezon City, on April 28, 2007 at about 1.30 p.m. As he was being forcibly taken, he was shouting “Aktibista lang po ako! (I am only an activist).”
“I realized that Jonas could be missing when he did not come home that night of April 28th,” his mother, Edith Burgos, said.
She said one witness saw the young Burgos forced into a vehicle with license plate number TAB 194, which was later traced to a vehicle impounded by the Army’s 56th Infantry Battalion in Bulacan province.
Army officials said the license plate was stolen from the vehicle inside their base.
Burgos is a member of a peasant organization in Bulacan province called the Alyansang Magbubukid ng Bulacan (Farmers’ Alliance in Bulacan).
Five of the six soldiers ordered investigated were identified as Army Lt. Col. Noel Clement, then commander of the 56th Infantry Battalion; Army Lt. Jaime Mendaro, of the 56th Infantry Battalion; Army Sgt. Jason Roxas and Air Force Cpl. Maria Joana Francisco; Army Sgt. Aron Arroyo and another soldier whose initials are TL, all allegedly assigned with the Military Intelligence Group-15 of the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. An informant, also a soldier, has provided Velasco the names of the five suspects.
One the six, Clement, has strongly denied involvement in the disappearance of the activist and said he is ready to face the investigation. ”I will clear my name. I have nothing to hide,” Clement told reporters in Manila.
“I don't know why I am dragged into this. If this were a book, I was in chapter one. I impounded the vehicle but it doesn't mean that I will always be responsible for it,” Clement said.
The vehicle, owned by Mudlong Mauro, was seized by army soldiers for transporting illegal lumber in June 2006.
Clement said he was relieved by Lt. Col. Melquiades Feliciano as commander of the 56th Infantry Battalion and had nothing to do with the missing license plate. “When I was relieved, I turned over everything inside the camp (to my successor),” he said.
Clement’s unit was pulled out of Bulacan in January this year and replaced by the Army’s 69th Infantry Battalion headed by Lt. Col. Edison Caga.
Lt. Gen. Romeo Tolentino, the Philippine Army chief, last week linked communist insurgents in the disappearance of Burgos. (Juley Reyes)
Senior State Prosecutor Emmanuel Velasco, of the Presidential Task Force Against Media Harassment, ordered the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to summon the soldiers to shed light on the disappearance of Jonas Burgos.
Burgos was seized in April this year at a restaurant in Quezon City. His family accused the military as behind the abduction.
“My son Jonas, according to witnesses, was forcibly taken by a group of six males and one female while he was having lunch at the Hapag Kainan Restaurant in Ever Gotesco Mall, Commonwealth Avenue, Quezon City, on April 28, 2007 at about 1.30 p.m. As he was being forcibly taken, he was shouting “Aktibista lang po ako! (I am only an activist).”
“I realized that Jonas could be missing when he did not come home that night of April 28th,” his mother, Edith Burgos, said.
She said one witness saw the young Burgos forced into a vehicle with license plate number TAB 194, which was later traced to a vehicle impounded by the Army’s 56th Infantry Battalion in Bulacan province.
Army officials said the license plate was stolen from the vehicle inside their base.
Burgos is a member of a peasant organization in Bulacan province called the Alyansang Magbubukid ng Bulacan (Farmers’ Alliance in Bulacan).
Five of the six soldiers ordered investigated were identified as Army Lt. Col. Noel Clement, then commander of the 56th Infantry Battalion; Army Lt. Jaime Mendaro, of the 56th Infantry Battalion; Army Sgt. Jason Roxas and Air Force Cpl. Maria Joana Francisco; Army Sgt. Aron Arroyo and another soldier whose initials are TL, all allegedly assigned with the Military Intelligence Group-15 of the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. An informant, also a soldier, has provided Velasco the names of the five suspects.
One the six, Clement, has strongly denied involvement in the disappearance of the activist and said he is ready to face the investigation. ”I will clear my name. I have nothing to hide,” Clement told reporters in Manila.
“I don't know why I am dragged into this. If this were a book, I was in chapter one. I impounded the vehicle but it doesn't mean that I will always be responsible for it,” Clement said.
The vehicle, owned by Mudlong Mauro, was seized by army soldiers for transporting illegal lumber in June 2006.
Clement said he was relieved by Lt. Col. Melquiades Feliciano as commander of the 56th Infantry Battalion and had nothing to do with the missing license plate. “When I was relieved, I turned over everything inside the camp (to my successor),” he said.
Clement’s unit was pulled out of Bulacan in January this year and replaced by the Army’s 69th Infantry Battalion headed by Lt. Col. Edison Caga.
Lt. Gen. Romeo Tolentino, the Philippine Army chief, last week linked communist insurgents in the disappearance of Burgos. (Juley Reyes)
Friday, February 02, 2007
Dozens Fear Dead, Wounded In Gas Explosion In Southern Philippines
PAGADIAN CITY (Mindanao Examiner / 02 Feb) – At least 30 people were feared dead after a gas explosion Friday in the southern Philippine province of Zamboanga del Sur, officials said.
The fiery blast also injured dozens of people in the village of Lacupayan in Tigbao town where a delivery truck carrying tanks of liquefied petroleum gas had earlier overturned.
Officials said an electrical spark from the engine or exhaust of a passing bus may have triggered a fire from leaked gas tanks that caused the explosion. The bus, which came from nearby town of Buug, was on its way to Pagadian City.
“Initial reports said as many as 30 people had been killed and that there are many people injured from the blast, mostly bus passengers,” Major General Raymundo Ferrer, commander of the Army’s 1st Infantry Division, told the Mindanao Examiner.
He said troops were sent to the area to help bring the victims to hospitals in Pagadian City, several miles from Tigbao.
“Military trucks and ambulances are now being used to transport the victims to hospitals. This is a terrible day and we really cannot tell when accidents would occur,” Ferrer said.
He said the explosion occurred at around 10.40 a.m. and that soldiers from a detachment near the village rushed to the area after they heard the powerful blast.
The area had been cordoned off, he said, to allow investigation by authorities. (Mindanao Examiner)
The fiery blast also injured dozens of people in the village of Lacupayan in Tigbao town where a delivery truck carrying tanks of liquefied petroleum gas had earlier overturned.
Officials said an electrical spark from the engine or exhaust of a passing bus may have triggered a fire from leaked gas tanks that caused the explosion. The bus, which came from nearby town of Buug, was on its way to Pagadian City.
“Initial reports said as many as 30 people had been killed and that there are many people injured from the blast, mostly bus passengers,” Major General Raymundo Ferrer, commander of the Army’s 1st Infantry Division, told the Mindanao Examiner.
He said troops were sent to the area to help bring the victims to hospitals in Pagadian City, several miles from Tigbao.
“Military trucks and ambulances are now being used to transport the victims to hospitals. This is a terrible day and we really cannot tell when accidents would occur,” Ferrer said.
He said the explosion occurred at around 10.40 a.m. and that soldiers from a detachment near the village rushed to the area after they heard the powerful blast.
The area had been cordoned off, he said, to allow investigation by authorities. (Mindanao Examiner)
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