Call To Fight For Freedom Rings Louder

On August 22, 1986, Katipunan leaders Andres Bonifacio and his brother Procopio, Emilio Jacinto, Teodoro Plata, Aguedo del Rosario, Pio Valenzuela and some 500 katipuneros arrived at the home of Juan A. Aquino, the son of Melchora Aquino or Tandang Sora, in Pugadlawin. News had spread that the secret society had been discovered by the Spanish authorities and many had been arrested in the ensuring crackdown on the revolutionaries.

Bonifacio had called for a meeting on August 24, in Balintawak, amidst reports that the guardia civil were on their tail. On August 23, more than 1,000 people had assembled as more katipuneros arrived. It was at this point that Bonifacio asked everyone assembled to tear their cedulas as a symbol of their resolve to fight the Spanish colonizers.

"Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! (Long Live the Philippines!)," the katipuneros shouted with one voice, making the Cry of Pugadlawin.

The following day, the leaders of the Katipunan finalized the plan to attack Intramuros in the midnight of 29 August. But even before the said date came, groups of revolutionaries had separate clashes with the guardia civil. Bonifacio came out with the manifesto rousing Filipinos everywhere to join in a simultaneous attack on all Spanish garrisons, offices, storage housed and other facilities. In the following days, katipuneros in Luzon and Visayas, armed only with bolos and a few guns, launched assaults on the Spanish enemy, and spread the fire of the revolution throughout the archipelago.

Bonifacio and the 1986 revolutionaries struggled for the Filipino's right to self-determination which, as Algiers Declaration put it, is an "imprescriptible and unalienable right" of every people. "Every people has the right to break free from any colonial or foreign domination, whether direct or indirect, and from any racist regime," states Article 6 of the Declaration.

Today katipuneros' call for freedom rings even louder as modern-day Filipinos are still shackled by worsening poverty and oppression not very different from that in Bonifacio's time, under a government which represents interests only of foreign powers and the local landlord-comprador elite. Like the preceding regimes, the Arroyo administration is ridden with graft and corruption and implements policies which favor transnational companies and foreign governments more than its own people. Officials of the regime continue the bureaucratic tradition of enriching themselves from selling the national patrimony, exacting exorbitant taxes while depriving the people of meaningful government services.

The worsening extra judicial killings, enforced disappearances and other human rights violations in the seven years under Arroyo reflects her government's disregard for human rights and the desperate use of force to stay in power.

After 111 years, many Filipinos are still heeding Bonifacio's call to join the fight against the oppressive system and work towards setting up a democratic government which respects human rights and is truly representative of the Filipino people.

Now, would you wait for another desaparecidos or individuals who are victims of extra judicial killings and other form of repression to be in newspapers or TV's just for you to move and fight for your freedom and right to live?

Or would you wanted to die in hunger because you can no longer afford to buy the ceiling prices of primary commodities just for you to recognize that you're being oppressed by the Arroyo regime?

Time flocks by, but still you wanted to be stubborn and watch other Filipinos die in poverty, coercion and fascism.

Then this is the time I blame you for letting the status quo to prevail and continue up until next generations, in which of course letting many lives to be sacrificed.

Desaparecidos

"Enforce Disappearance can victimize anyone if Arroyo regime's terrorism is not stopped."

It was half an hour past midnight of 17 November 2006 when eight armed men barged into the home of the Robiños family in Angeles City, Pampanga, about 80 km north of Manila.

The armed men searched the house, while shouting threats and hitting at the Robiños family members. One of the men kicked Romulos Robiños, a tricycle driver, dragged him out of the house and forced him inside a white vehicle.

A family friend said that he later saw Romulos inside the 69th Infantry Battalion (IB), Philippine Army headquarters in San Jose matulid, Mexico, Pampanga. In their search at the same headquarters, Romulos' wife said she saw one of Romulos's abductors inside the camp. But they did not find Romulos and had not seen him again despite countless days of searching. Romulos has been missing for more than 20 months.

The same scene was repeated in many other places. Among the most recent was on 28 April 2007, in a public place in Quezon City: Jonas Burgos was having his lunch at a restaurant inside the Ever Gotesco mall when four armed men accosted him. He was forcibly taken out of the mall, pushed inside a vehicle and whisked away. Jonas is an agriculturist and activist who had been helping farmers in Bulacan. The plate number of the vehicle used in Jonas's abduction was traced to an impounded vehicle inside the 56th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army (IBPA) in Bulacan. Jonas has been missing for five months.

Romulos Robiños and Jonas Burgos are only two of 184 who are victims of enforced disappearance since Mrs. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo assumed power in 2001. They are the "desaparecidos," those who were abducted and kept hidden by suspected soldiers, police and their agents, allegedly in the name of counter-insurgency and the US and Philippine governments' "global war against terror."

Families of desaparecidos are victims, too. They are subjected to psychological torture as they worry from day to day about the fate of their loved ones. There is no closure for families of desaparecidos, only an endless search. The disappearance also affects their livelihood and put their lives at risk.

The tragedy of a loved one's disappearance is the same for any person -whether in the Philippines, Indonesia, Kosovo, Honduras, Turkey, Guatemala, Nigeria or Afghanistan.

In 2005 alone, the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearance (WGEID) has received 50,000 cases from 90 countries. It is said that "anti-terrorist activities are being used by an increasing number of States as an excuse for not respecting human rights, especially protection of all persons from disappearance."

Very few States have created a specific criminal offense of enforced disappearance and only 61 countries have signed the International Convention on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. The Arroyo government did not sign the convention despite vigorous calls by the UN.

On August 30, the world commemorates the International Day of the Disappeared. This day is an occasion to give tribute to victims of state terrorism all over the world, remember the disappeared, and hold the perpetrators accountable for their crimes.

The tragedy that befell the Robiños, Burgos and many other families was not fate but the desired result of the implementation of a policy of the Arroyo regime, as it is confronted with political and economic crisis, fearful of social change and afraid that it will be ousted by people power.

As long as Mrs. Arroyo and her minions like Norberto Gonzales, Eduardo Ermita, Raul Gonzales, Gen. Hermogenes Esperon and other implementors of Oplan Bantay Laya and the "War on Terror" are in power, the threat of enforced disappearance, extrajudicial killing and other violations of our human rights will remain dangling above our heads.

Our silence or indifference today will not keep us safe in the days to come, as anyone may become a victim of enforced disappearance unless the Arroyo regime is stopped. It is time for all of us to stand for justice with the rest of our countrymen and women and defy Arroyo's undeclared martial law.

Their search for the truth may expose them to even greater danger yet families and friends of disappeared persons continue to exhibit courage and commitment to collectively fight for justice. This serves as an inspiration to other victims of injustice and more citizens to understand state terrorism and enforced disappearance, and resist until no one is disappeared again.

Source: FHM Philippines Vol.3, No.3 (for Human Rights) July-Sept 2007 Issue

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