Kin of missing activists mark 2nd year of abduction
It has been two years since their loved ones were snatched without warning in the dead of the night by unidentified armed men leaving no trace of them ever since.
But memories continue to give the families of missing activists Nilo Arado and Ma. Luisa Posa-Dominado strength and hope that they will see them again.
Yesterday, they marked the second year of their abduction with a Mass and program in Barangay Cabanbanan in Oton town, 7 km south of here, where the two were waylaid and abducted on April 12, 2007.
The families along with friends and colleagues of the missing activists assembled at the Molo District public plaza in the afternoon before proceeding to the site of the abduction. Among them is human rights worker Jose Ely Garachico who was shot, seriously wounded and left for dead when their vehicle was waylaid and the two other activists were taken.
Dominado, a prominent political detainee during the Marcos Dictatorship, was the spokesperson in Panay of the Samahan ng Mga Ex-Detainees Laban sa Detensyon at para sa Amnestiya (Selda) while Arado was the chair of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan in Panay when they were abducted.
The victims' families and colleagues have blamed military agents for the abduction pointing to the similarity of the manner of the abduction with that of other cases in other places in the country. But this has been repeatedly denied by military officials.
The Iloilo Regional Trial Court is hearing the petition for a writ of amparo filed by the families of the missing activists against police and military officials.
In separate statements issued to mark the second year of their mother's abduction, sisters May Wan and Tamara Dominado recalled cherished memories of their mother.
“I heard stories as a child about her escaping prison four times, about her dodging flanks of soldiers in the mountains, dodging bullets here and there. These captivated me, and I’ve always thought of my mom as somewhat of a hero,” said Tamara, 16.
“As a kid she’d take me to her many offices. I never understood any of what they talked about, but I knew it (will) help lots of people in some town or barangay or something. She’d take me to lots of rallies and other places where they’d implement their projects. Not somewhere you’d usually take a kid to,” she said.
They also expressed understanding of the causes that their mother devoted her life to.
“...I have always understood what she and my father did. They’d always explain it to me and my sister but I’d never listen anyways. I have always known. And that’s why I never asked them to stop what they do. Even as I experience complications in my life and wishing that someday it would be normal, I still won’t ask her to stop. Because what they do is beautiful. The most beautiful thing any person could do. Self-sacrifice,” Tamara said.
May Wan said she had previously hesitated to write down memories of her mother because it “gives it such permanence and carriesasense of finality” and that she feared that they would never see her again.
But she said she also wanted to share what her mother was like so that others would also see and appreciate the “small and seemingly insignificant things” mothers do for their children that only get appreciated when they are gone.
“Nanay was a mother not only to me and Tamara but also to my cousins and to all the people she has sheltered.Our home, our lives are filled with people who have felt abandoned and neglected, people suffering from nervous breakdown,youths who have run away from home, women who have been rapedor beaten or probably both, pregnant women approaching single motherhoodand even just imperfect people whoseem to irritate everybody else,” said May Wan, 26.
Arado's wife Rosemarie said that while her hopes of finding her husband dims each day he remains missing, she will never give up hope of finding him.
She said she must remain strong for their 8-year old son Daniel Marshal who has also not stopped asking for his father.
“The memories of the life we shared and the kind of husband and father he was sustains me even if I have painfully accepted that we may never see him alive again,” said Rosemarie.