Relatives of four missing community workers, accompanied by representatives from various nongovernment organizations, filed a complaint at the Commission on Human Rights on Wednesday, July 13, 2022. (INQUIRER PHOTO)
MANILA, Philippines 鈥� Alipio 鈥淎dor鈥� Juat is no stranger to political repression.
A longtime unionist and community organizer for the labor center Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU), Juat was one of the scores of activists who survived arrest and torture during the martial law regime of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.鈥檚 late father.
Since that period, labor and peasant organizers and political activists were considered destabilizers, KMU secretary general Jerome Adonis told reporters on Wednesday.
鈥淏ut it is not a crime nor will it ever be a crime to organize communities,鈥� Adonis said.
On May 3 鈥� just days before the presidential elections that was won by the dictator鈥檚 son and namesake 鈥� history repeated itself for Juat. He and fellow community organizer Elizabeth Magbanua were abducted by armed men who said they were from the Philippine Navy, according to Adonis.
He said the martial law survivor 鈥渉as now been victimized twice over by a Marcos.鈥�
Juat and Magbanua and two peasant organizers, Elgene Mungcal and Elena Cortez, had gone missing in a string of disappearances in Central Luzon.
Their families have called on the Marcos administration to help find their loved ones and stop the wanton arrests and enforced disappearances of dissidents.
Asking AFP
On Wednesday, they filed a formal complaint before the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) and asked the state rights watchdog to help them investigate the cases.
The CHR said it would send a representative to Camp Aguinaldo, the headquarters in Quezon City, as soon as possible.
Juat supposedly was able to send word to his family that he was taken there by the men who had seized him.
The families of the missing are demanding that the authorities allow them to return home 鈥渨ithout condition and immediately.鈥�
They also want the new administration to junk Executive Order No. 70, which created the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-Elcac) that was created by Marcos鈥� predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte.
Last call to family
The anti-communist task force has become notorious for Red-tagging critics of the government, many of whom were later persecuted, prosecuted or killed.
Representatives of the women鈥檚 group, Gabriela, and KMU accompanied the relatives of Juat and the three others to the CHR.
Magbanua, a longtime member of KMU, has been missing since May 3. Gabriela members Mungcal and Cortez disappeared on July 3.
Juat was able to make a call to his family recently, telling them he was being held in Camp Aguinaldo
Adonis believes that no one else 鈥渨ould have an interest in our four colleagues except the government and the military who wish to silence those who fight for true justice.鈥�
Apparently, Magbanua and Juat were together in Valenzuela City on May 3 to attend a meeting related to their community organizing work, according to Ruth Maglalan, Magbanua鈥檚 partner.
In his brief phone call, Juat told his family that the police were waiting for him and Magbanua at the gate of the subdivision where they were to hold their meeting. After they were seized, they were whisked away in separate vehicles.
Juat demanded to know where Magbanua was taken but the men just told him not to fret about his colleague, his relatives said.
Juat said he was brought to Camp Aguinaldo without being told what charges he was being detained for. He has not been heard from since making that call.
鈥楴o right to take her鈥�
Maglalan tearfully told reporters that Magbanua had been a community organizer for the past three decades and 鈥渉as done nothing but help people realize their rights.鈥�
鈥淭here is no just reason for them to take her away from us, from me, from everyone who loves her,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hey have no right to take her away from the masses that she has served her entire life.鈥�
She challenged President Marcos to 鈥減rove that he is not like his father鈥� in the way that the ousted dictator let human rights abuses 鈥渞un rampant鈥� under his martial law regime, and to show that he was different, he should order the military to surface Magbanua and all other victims of enforced disappearances.
Cortez鈥檚 daughter, Azaze Galang, was distraught over the disappearance of her mother years after her father, also a peasant organizer, went missing.
She asked the military 鈥渢o open the camps and let us look for our loved ones freely.鈥�
Worst fears
The last time she saw her mother was when she was heading to a meeting with Mungcal in Moncada town, Tarlac province. A closed circuit television footage at Moncada鈥檚 Winfare Supermarket was the last image of her mother that she saw on July 3.
Cortez has not returned home since then.
There were no members of Mungcal鈥檚 family that met with the reporters and the CHR staff on Wednesday.
Galang fears that both her parents are victims of enforced disappearances, never to be heard from again.
鈥淭his has happened to us once before. I hope that what had happened in the past would not continue to happen today, that we would get no word about our parents,鈥� Galang said.
Joms Salvador, Gabriela secretary general, said her group has been documenting many cases of enforced disappearances across the country over a short span of time.
鈥淲e have no doubts that it will only continue and worsen given the climate of repression,鈥� she said.
RELATED STORIES
NUPL appeals ruling of CA on missing peasant leader
Remembering desaparecidos: The unending anxiety of uncertainty
Jonas Burgos case: A decade of loss, forgiveness, hope