Greetings from the Desaparecidos from the Philippines.
The Desaparecidos is an organization of about 100 members who are either victims or families of victims of enforced disappearances.Its members are bound by one uniting common experience: that of having been a victim of the cruelest crime of enforced disappearance.The Desaparecidos is probably the only organization where we do not want more members.
Enforced disappearance is the worst kind of human rights violation because its effects are far reaching not only on the one abducted who is taken out of the protection of the law and is thus vulnerable to the most inhuman treatment, but also on the relatives and friends of the abducted who must suffer the agony of uncertainty of the fate suffered by the loved one.
There are many of us.There are 185 reported cases of recorded disappearances, but there are more cases which remain unrecorded and unreported because the victims and their families are either afraid or do not have the resources to go to the nearest Karapatan office.
Now let me tell you about Jonas.
Jonas shouted “Aktibista lang po ako” (I am just an activist) several times, addressing his first plea to the waitress who became our witness, and then to the other diners at the restaurant. Jonas shouted several times more as he was being dragged by four men and one woman. The restaurant was full of customers as it was noontime. Jonas was alone and unarmed. No one helped him. No one lifted a finger nor whispered a query to those who were forcing Jonas. If somebody so much as whispered a protest, would the perpetrators still carry out the abduction knowing they are identified?
Yet no one helped. These are the signs of the times. We stand in the sidelines, in the safety of our silence and allow an injustice, a crime to be carried out.
This was 10 months ago. To this date we have not found Jonas. We still do not have any hint of whether he is alive or not or where he is hidden, although we know who took him. We would like to know who is responsible for the abduction, and that is why we are determined to continue searching until the whole truth about Jonas comes out.
Why was Jonas abducted?
There is a pattern in the abductions. One need not be any particular kind of person to be abducted, except to be critical of the state. Jonas was a horticulturist. He finished BS Agriculture and his forte was organic farming. Since he was very much involved with farmers, he became a member of the Alyansang Magbubukid ng Bulacan (Bulacan Peasant Alliance). He organized farmer groups and taught them their rights. Jonas was very critical of the government whom he perceived as wanting in its support for farmers.
But one need not be a critic though. There are cases where family members of community organizers have been abducted instead.
Family’s actions
Establishing that Jonas was somewhere but unable to go home, we called for a press conference to seek the aid of the media to locate him. At that time, I thought he could be in a hospital, hurt and unable to move. I appealed to anyone who has any information on Jonas, to call us up. I got a call from a nameless and faceless informant who told me he witnessed a kidnapping in Ever Gotesco Mall.
You are probably wondering how anyone can be abducted in broad daylight with so many witnesses, the abductors not wearing masks or disguise that it would be easy to identify them.
Because no one has been held accountable let alone convicted for human rights violation, Karapatan reports “Gloria Arroyo has successfully deflected responsibility from her but failed to make anyone accountable.. . . from the execution, investigation up to the prosecution, state forces who perpetrate the killings and disappearances seemed to be untouchable.” On the contrary, at the State of Nation delivered by GMA in Congress, she praised General Jovito Palparan (identified by countless victims as instrumental in so many human rights violations) for a ‘job well done’. The message is thus relayed to all: killing, disappearances is alright for as long as the enemy ‘deserves’ to die.
Jonas was positively identified by the waitress who became our witness. A guard of the mall told the court that he saw a man struggling helplessly as he was lifted by four men, holding him on both arms and legs and forced into a waiting van. The guard was about to approach the men, but backed off as soon as they shouted “police!”. The guard did back off but he managed to list down the van’s plate number.
Thank God for that piece of evidence. This evidence has led us to find out the complicated web of deceit and cover up perpetrated by the highest officials of the state forces of the land.
As I listened to the witness relate how Jonas’ abduction was carried out, I could not believe that no one attempted to help. No one, not even a whisper of protest was heard. A whisper could have made the difference. I made a resolve at that time, that never shall I let an opportunity pass me by. I shall try to help within my capacity. But I shall help.
What steps did we take?
I went to the Commission on Human Rights (CHR), the Armed Forces of the Philippines, Philippine National Police, the Supreme Court, the Executive Department particularly the executive secretary who was a family friend and even the President herself, whom I wrote.
The investigation was done in a sloppy manner. Some leads were not investigated and some people involved were not summoned. The Commission of Human Rights terminated the public hearings after four months blaming me for not cooperating. Adding insult to injury, the Armed Forces of the Philippines was enjoined to continue its investigation in the Jonas Case. The CHR already knew that officers of the Armed Forces were respondents in the case and yet, the commissioners expected them to make an impartial investigation.
Nothing happened with the supposed investigation. But the CHR public hearing set the record straight that Jonas was not considered an enemy of the state, and that he was not in the military’s order of battle.
Last September 20, 2007 I filed the information on Jon as’ disappearance with the Working Group for Enforced and Involuntary Disappearance (WGEID) of the United Nations in Geneva.
Demonization
Meanwhile, the military would use another tactic, i.e. demonization. In a press announcement in July 2007, a military officer said that Jonas is a member of the New People’s Army (NPA, the armed group of the Communist Party of the Philippines) and that he is a communist. The military is now claiming that Jonas was a victim of an internal purge of the NPA.
This, too, is a pattern we have seen in the abductions. First, they abduct anyone who is critical of the government, and then when the family and friends look for this person, they say he is a member of the CPP-NPA and is a victim either of an internal purge or an encounter between soldiers and the NPA.
We, the relatives, consequently become tainted. The ‘red herring’ taint conditions people to believe that it is right to do away with these people who are ‘communists’. And of course we know that this is not so. There can be no debate about forcible disappearance or abduction being wrong. There can never be any debate about extrajudicial killing to being wrong and a sin.
So what must we do?
We are brought to this circumstance for a reason. We cannot just seat back and resign ourselves to our fate. Resign is a sad word, an unloving word. We cannot live a life characterized by fear and helplessness. For those who are paralyzed into inaction because of fear, let me tell you that that is precisely how the perpetrators want us to react. In fact all these are in aid of sowing fear among the populace. We cannot allow this, because as Edmund Burke said “All that is necessary for the forces of evil to win in this world is for enough good men to do nothing.”
Indeed I consider this not a fight between people, nor a fight between ideologies. It is the fight between good and evil. The tortures described by those who have survived their abduction are proof of this.
Today I bring my case before you so that you will have the opportunity to be involved. This would be a challenge for all to be ‘good neighbors’ across the oceans.
I appeal to all. Perhaps by coming to the land of the free, I will find my Jonas.
Abridged version of a talk delivered at the Ecumenical Advocacy Days conference, March 8-9, 2008, Alexandria Hilton, Washington D.C., and at the speaking tour in key cities in the USA on March 1-19, 2008.
