Double
Standards
Cielo
Buan and Evangeline Pitao were both separated from their husbands by the ongoing
armed conflict. The husband of one is held by the New People’s Army (NPA) and
of the other’s by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP)—but the
difference goes much deeper than this.
By Lira
Dalangin
Cielo Buan and Evangeline
Pitao share the same fate of having been separated from their husband due to the
ongoing armed conflict. Buan’s husband, Army intelligence Major Noel Buan, has
been a prisoner of war of the New People's Army (NPA) since July 1999.
Evangeline’s husband, Mindanao NPA commander Leoncio Pitao, has been in
military custody since his capture in November 1999.
But while sharing a common
plight, Cielo and Vangie are a picture of contrast.
While people may keep
wondering what Maj. Buan is like, they've become all too familiar with Cielo who
has hugged the limelight with her thespian display of tearjerker interviews in
radio and television. Her incessant pleas for the safe release of her husband
rouse sympathy for her as the wife deprived of the tender loving care of a
husband who now lives in captivity with the Marxist guerrillas.
Vangie, on the other hand,
during press conferences and interviews, begins her narrative with how grateful
she and local human rights groups are to the donors of her boat fare and
allowance to get to Manila. Coming from Davao, Vangie's visits to her husband,
who's now detained at the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the
Philippines (ISAFP) in Camp Aguinaldo, depend only on contributions raised from
friends and supporters.
Vangie's agony is rarely
expressed in tears and shrieks. In her plain words and native accent there is
depth and intensity. Vangie would tell how Mindanaoans regard her husband as a
brave and sincere leader, and to her and her children a loving husband and
father. Once, she wrote a letter of appeal to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo,
pleading for the release of her husband. But all these seem to fall on deaf ears
as Pitao remains in jail.
While Cielo may be counting
the days to her reunion with her husband who is due for release on April 6,
Vangie has yet to see a glimpse of hope for her husband's freedom.
"Right now, Major
Buan's family must be feeling a sense of jubilation because of his pending
release,” says Evangeline. "I envy them."
She considers this a special
event to look forward to and volunteered to be present when the army officer is
released. "I want to see how happy Maj. Buan's wife and daughter are when
they are reunited. I wish that the day would come when our family would
experience the same happy event," she says.
The National Democratic
Front of the Philippines (NDFP) has ordered the release of Buan, captured in
Lucena, Quezon, as a goodwill measure for the resumption of the peace
negotiations between the NDFP and the Government of the Republic of the
Philippines (GRP) on April 27.
In return, human rights
organizations are calling for the freedom of Pitao, Donato Continente, alleged
killer of U.S. Army Col. James Rowe, church worker Lorna Rivera-Baba, and other
political prisoners in the country.
Soon after taking her oath
of office, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo promised the release of 73 out of
250 political prisoners. To date, only 42 have been granted freedom because of
delays in the processing of their release papers. But Pitao, Rivera-Baba, and
Continente are not among the detainees to be freed.
Pitao, also allegedly known
as Kumander Parago Sandoval of the NPA's Merardo Arce Command in Mindanao, is
considered a big catch by the military following his involvement in the
kidnapping of Gen.Victor Obillo and Capt. Eduardo Montealto in 1999. It was also
Pitao who facilitated the army officials' safe release.
In November 1999, Pitao was
captured in Davao City by the military and has since remained in the custody of
the ISAFP. Instead of being charged with political crimes, however, the NPA
leader is being accused of 17 criminal cases ranging from murder, kidnapping,
arson, robbery, and other felonies before nine different branches of the Quezon
City Regional Trial Court.
All of Evangeline's pleas to
the President for her husband's release remain unanswered. Coming all the way
from Davao to join the Kalbaryo ng Mga Bilanggong Pulitikal, a press
conference cum Lenten program depicting the travails of the political prisoners
languishing in jails held on April 3, she laments the agonizing experience that
she and her four children suffer in the face of her husband's uncertain
condition in military custody.
She tells how all her son
asked for during his graduation last month was for his father to see him on
stage receiving his diploma. "It never happened, of course, because my
husband is still in jail," she says.
Evangeline says she wished
she could just bring her son, Ryan, to Manila to see his father, but financial
constraints prevent the trip. It was only in the latter part of 2000 when
Evangeline began seeing her husband regularly. After his capture, the ISAFP
ordered a ban on visitors for Pitao, including his family as well as human
rights groups.
Due to the unhealthy
conditions in the ISAFP detention cell, Evangeline said her husband has been
experiencing difficulties in walking and has contracted urinary tract infection.
Ed Hortillano, spokesperson
for the political detainees at the New Bilibid Prisons, says that while people
reflect on the sufferings of Christ during the Lenten season, they should also
think about the continuous sufferings of the political detainees languishing in
jails because of their political beliefs. #