Kin of 2 disappeared file writ of amparo vs Philippines

ILOILO CITY - The kins of two victims of enforced disappearance in Iloilo hailed top government military and civilian officials in court Monday (December 17) to compel them to produce the missing persons.

Maywan P. Dominado and Rosemarie D. Arado in their petition for the writ of amparo asked the Regional Trial Court to order the respondents to open four police and army camps for them to search their missing kins, Ma. Luisa Posa-Dominado and Ronilo Abao Arado, missing for eight months now.

Posa-Dominado, spokespersonchair for the Samahan ng mga Ex-Detainees Laban sa Detensyon at para sa Amnestiya (SELDA) and Arado, chair for the Paghugpong sg mga Mangunguma sa Panay kag Guimaras (PAMANGGAS), were attacked by armed men April 12 evening at Cabanbanan, Oton, 13 kilometers south of this city.

The former was campaigning for Bayan Muna, the latter for Anakpawis partylists in the May 2007 elections. They were on their way back to this city from San Jose, Antique when a Mitsubishi Delica van with plate number GPM 438 suddenly overtook them at Brgy. Cabanbanan, Oton, forcing their driver, Jose Ely Garachico, to step on the break.

A stocky built man with cropped hair jumped off from the Delica van, dashed toward the victim’s pickup, and fired at Garachico hitting him on the left side of the neck.

Garachico, coordinator for the human rights organization Karapatan, said his attacker pulled him down from the driver’s seat and forced him toward the Delica van but the armed man failed to get him into the van as he (attacker) turned back to the victims’ pickup which quickly sped away following the suspects two vehicles.

The ill-fated Mitsubishi pickup was found the following morning at Brgy. Guadalupe, Januiay town, charred, some 30 kilometers northwest of this city.

Garachico survived the attack. Residents carried him to the house of the Cabanbanan barangay chair who transported him to the Oton PNP station which, in turn, rushed him to Iloilo Doctors’ Hospital here on board the police patrol car.

Petitioner Maywan Dominado,25, said the disappearance of her mother “now left me as mother to my sister Tamara,” a third year high school student.

Petitioner Rosemarie Arado, on the other hand, told reporters that their first-born and only child, still cry missing his father.

They tagged as respondents, Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, national security adviser Jorberto Gonzales, armed forces chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon, PNP Western Visayas director, Chief Superintendent Wildredo Dulay, Col. Mariano Perez, chief of the military intelligence batallon (MIB) in the region at the time of the attack and his successor a Maj. Galanza.

They further impleaded Capt. Lowen Gil Marquez, chief of the 32nd Civil Relations Unit based here, and two police chiefs, Inspector Vicente Castor Jr. of the Oton station, and Insp. Alexander Bou Rodrigo of Januiay.

Lawyer Janne Baterna of the Panay chapter of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL) told reporters that, aside from compelling the respondents to produce the missing persons and open their camps for inspection, asked the court “to order the respondents to submit documents to show what steps they made to investigate and run after the suspects.”

The petitioners named the camps they want to inspect as: PNP regional headquarters Camp Martin Delgado, Iloilo City; Army 3rd Infantry Division HQ Camp Peralta,Jamindan, Capiz; Army Camp Ceferino Carreon, Calinog, Iloilo; Army Camp Hernandez, Dingle, Iloilo; And Army Camp Monteclaro, Miag-ao, Iloilo.

Three other NUPL lawyers – Steven Circado, Teopisto S. Melliza, Mario Niel San Felix — signed the petition. Three more lawyers, Hector Teodosio, Joshua Alim and Joseph Anthony Lutero, volunteered as collaborating counsels.

The petitioners told the court that they impleaded national government and military officials because extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances have also “occurred in several provinces and regions of the Philippines and the pattern and style of execution are similar to the attack against Maria Luisa Dominado, Nilo Arado and Jose Ely Garachico after the Armed Forces of the Philippines implemented its counter-insurgency policy codenamed OPLAN Bantay Laya I and OPLAN Bantay Laya II which induce the respondents to commit crimes that have become a pattern, like extra-judicial execution and enforced disappearances targeting activists and human rights workers.”

They added that since 2001 “887 activists and journalists have been killed and 185 others forcibly abducted” blaming the government for not only failing to run after perpetrators but for creating a “culture of impunity” and even openly instigating the attacks.

They named, for one, Army Capt. Marquez and PNP regional director Dulay for covering up the incident. The two, they said, rubbed salt on the wound by “muddling” the issue.

Dulay declared on broadcast that Posa and Arado could have just pulled off a “kidnap me” operation, hinting the two merely faked their abduction.

Marquez, on the other hand, said the two victims were “communists” who got “purged” by their comrades in a “power struggle” or in “quarrel over funds.” He repeatedly aired, quoting “intelligence reports” that the two missing persons were seen in the hills “surrounded by armed NPA guerillas.” (30)

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