The fact that retired Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan has not been arrested two months after the Malolos Regional Trial Court issued a warrant of arrest for him for the 2006 disappearance of UP students Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeno and farmer Manuel Merino should have made us realize that there are forces in the government who have remained unenlightened despite President Aquino’s much-vaunted reform agenda.
There’s also the disappointing lack of action by the Aquino administration on the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance which has been signed by 92 countries , 31 of which have ratified the Convention.
The Aquino government also never replied to the annual requests by the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances for official invitation to visit the country.
That’s why I’m worried about the three missing Muslim men – Najir Gumuntul Ahung,38;Rasdie Bisita Kasaran,21; and Yusup Cadlus Mohammad,21, all residents of Al-Barka,Basilan – who were last heard last Jan. 3, when one of them texted a brother, Jamih Arawi, Barangay Captain of Barangay Guinanta. Al-Barka, Basilan, of their arrival at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport 1.
They came on board Air Philippines flight from Zamboanga city. They were scheduled to leave the next day for Khartoum, Somalia. They were going to Sudan to study Arabic language at the International University of Africa on scholarships.
In the petition before the Supreme Court for the issuance of a writ of Amparo seeking for their protection filed by the relatives through their counsel, Roque & Butuyan Law Offices, they said they have a reasonable ground to believe, have been abducted by agents of the Armed Forces of the Philippines in connection with the Al-Barka, Basilan debacle.
Named respondents are Armed Forces of the Philippines Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Jessie D. Dellosa and the AFP Intelligence ServiceCchief, Brig. Gen. Cesar Ronnie Ordoyo.
The relatives’ suspicion is based on unconfirmed reports that the three were suspects in the Oct. 19, 2011 ambush of Philippine Army Special Forces by suspected members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, reportedly joined by villagers near Al-Barka, Basilan.
Nineteen soldiers were killed in that incident, 14 of them were beheaded Twelve more soldiers were wounded.
Authorities filed a complaint with the Basilan Prosecutor’s Office against the MILF men behind the massacre. They also implicated 300 “John Does.”
The relatives have tried looking for the three everywhere. They have gone to the Philippine National Police and to the Commission on Human Rights. They sought the help of Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearance and its allied organization, Families of Victims of Involuntary Disappearance.
The agonizing search yielded zero information.
Very recently, the relatives said, CHR has received information that the three men are in the custody of the ISAFP. “However, any formal acknowledgment from the AFP and the ISAFP about this matter remains to be seen,” they said in their petition.
Counsel Harry Roque said,”Assuming for the sake of argument that they had indeed taken part in the massacre, the proper way to do it is to charge the men in court and to cause the issuance of arrest warrants against them.”
He further said subjecting the three supect to involuntary disappearance and holding them incommunicado violate their fundamental constitutional rights, not to mention the fact that the opportunity given them by the International University of Africa in Sudan to study the Arabic language on scholarship was snatched away from them.
“There is thus a very serious threat to the life, liberty, and security of the three Aggrieved Parties. Their rights to life, liberty, and security are violated or threatened with violation by an unlawful act or omission of public officials or private individuals that are under the control and/or supervision of Respondents,” Roque said in the petition.
