Accents
Redux: The agony of May Wan and Rosemarie
Prelude
Because our unwavering cry for justice remains unanswered, I retrieve this column that was fraught with pain and anger about what happened one black day, April 12, 2007, when Luisa Posa-Dominado and Nilo Arado became statistics in the long list of Desaparecidos under the Macapagal-Arroyo administration.
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I couldn't help the tears. From across so many miles, May Wan poured her heart out in the letter faithfully delivered by the cyber postman [here in the U.S. of A.]. "Tita, ka-helpless gid sa amon…" Her words jumbled through the tears. I wiped away to prevent the teardrops from falling on the laptop.
May Wan is the godchild in baptism of Randy, my daughter who is a practicing physician here in South Carolina. May Wan is the only child of a family friend, Luing Posa-Dominado. [Immediately after the publication of this column, Bopeep Ladrido wrote to say that another daughter is Tamara, her student at UP High. Thank you, Bopeep, for the correction.] We heard May Wan was forced to fly home from Manila where she was reviewing for the bar exams to join the family in their frantic efforts to have Luing with them after her "disappearance" last April 12. Her abduction along with Nilo Arado and the wounding of Leeboy Garachico in Brgy. Cabanbanan was a blot in my relatively peaceful hometown, Oton.
Since then the incident has become a media event. Luing is the spokesperson of SELDA (Society of Ex-Detainees for Liberation, Against Detention and for Amnesty). Nilo Arado is a national council member of Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (Peasant Movement of the Philippines). I remember seeing him on TV as he testified in the senate hearing of the celebrated Joc Joc Bolante fertilizer scam. Their companion, Jose Ely "Leeboy" Garachico is the Public Information Officer of KARAPATAN-Panay. KARAPATAN is the alliance of human rights organizations. [Addendum: Leeboy is also the coordinator of the Iloilo Legal Assistance Center (ILAC) where the financially-challenged—the least of the brethren— turn to for legal help.]
"Disapearances" or Desaparecidos was one of the most horrifying human rights violations of the infamous Marcos dictatorship. A husband, a wife, a brother or sister, parent, child, or any of the relatives or colleague would simply vanish, the authorities denying holding them or having any knowledge of their whereabouts or fate, even if there were witnesses to their kidnappings or arrests. No detention records, no death notices, no graveyard, no bones. Nada. And this brings to mind a tale how, clutching at a straw for dear life, one woman was able to avoid her "disappearance" from the face of the earth.
It happened during the grim years of Martial Law. The scene was one of Manila's busy streets. A passenger jeep was stopped by the military and a girl in her twenties (let's call her Juana or Jane) was forcibly dragged out of her seat to the consternation of the rest of the passengers who were all strangers to the girl. Fearful that she could fall under the statistic of the 'disappeared,' all the poor girl could do was to shout out her residence phone number. Some of the passengers recalled the telephone number and notified her parents. It is said, to this day, Jane is still very much alive, courtesy of parents who pulled strings for their daughter to surface. She was lucky to have a father and mother both entrenched in high government positions. May Wan and Rosemarie do not have connections in the upper echelon of the Arroyo administration.
In a workbook on "Disappearances," Amnesty International distinguishes a case of "disappearance" from that of a missing person, a kidnapping, an incommunicado detention, or an extra-judicial execution by the following: (1) There are reasonable grounds to believe that a person (the victim) has been taken into custody by the authorities or their agent. (2) The authorities deny that the victim is in their custody or the custody of their agent. (3) There are reasonable grounds to disbelieve that denial.
Denial of accountability makes a "disappearance" unique among human rights violations. "By its very nature," states Amnesty International, "a 'disappearance' clouds the identity of its perpetrator. If there is no prisoner, no body, no victim, then presumably no one can be accused of having done anything." But where there is a consistent pattern of grave human rights violations, Amnesty International believes blame may be attributed to the government concerned—if only by implication—under the principle that a state's primary responsibility is to protect the safety of its citizens. (Underscoring mine)
The Amnesty International workbook mentions case studies of "Disappearances" in the country as reported by the Task Force Detainees of the Philippines, a group created by the Association of Major Religious Superiors of the Philippines (AMRSP) that monitored politically-motivated arrests. The list of those who had vanished, ceased to be, lost or 'disappeared' under the Marcos dictatorship had been finalized by the AMRSP.
It seems a new list is emerging under the Arroyo regime, and we could only hope it doesn't bear the names of Luisa Posa-Dominado and Nilo Arado. I know Luing to be very brave, possessed of guts to wrestle with the onslaught of human rights violations and stamina to stave off the iniquity of an exploitative, oppressive society. Underneath all that is a heart rich in compassion for the poor and the downtrodden. We could only pray to the Almighty for Luing and Nilo's abductors to let them surface now and rejoin their family who are in deep pain and steeped in anxious waiting for their whereabouts. A daughter and a wife wait in agony.
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Postscript
April 12, 2008, one year ago to date as I write this, there has been no sighting of Maria Luisa Posa-Dominado and Nilo Arado. Four people—May Wan and Tamara, Rosemarie and her son DM—continue to grieve in their absence.
(Comments to lagoc@hargray.com)