Surviving Mindoro

To be a human rights worker is to court death, especially if you’re in a place as militarized as the Mindoro provinces.  In less than a year, three human rights leaders – Eden Marcellana, Leyma Fortu and human rights lawyer Juvy Magsino – have been murdered in the island.  Their deaths have left only one from their batch of human rights workers in Mindoro alive. Twenty-four year old Irein Cuasay holds the painful distinction of having survived Mindoro and she tells Bulatlat.com how she did it. 

BY DABET CASTAÑEDA
Bulatlat.com

Soldiers of the 204th IB patrol the streets of Naujan,Oriental Mindoro (left) as human rights leader Irein Cuasay speaks at the funeral of slain Vice Mayor Juvy Magsino (right).  

Photos by Carlos H. Conde and Dabet Castañeda

Irein is now the spokesperson of the human rights group Karapatan in Southern Tagalog, taking over from long-time friend Eden who was killed in April last year while on a fact-finding mission in Mindoro. Before that, she was staying full-time in Mindoro as Karapatan’s local coordinator.

On March 22, 2002, she had her last glimpse of her home – a one-hectare rice and poultry farm in Sitio Makatok, Barangay Balinggayan, 45 minutes away from the center of Calapan City, Mindoro Oriental.  Her parents, Elpidio and Carmen, had begged her to leave, fearing for her safety as the military harassment against human rights workers intensified.

By then government troops had started to get hot on her tracks when she, together with the other slain human rights workers, continuously made noise against the presence of the 6^th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army (IBPA) in Mindoro Oriental.    

Then called Force Banahaw, the 204^th Brigade under the command of Col. Jovito Palparan set foot in the province in May 2001.

In a peace dialogue between Karapatan and the military in six months later, M/Sgt. Donald Caigas, chief intelligence officer of the 204^th IBPA was quoted as saying that the military was there as “an advance party for President Arroyo’s economic programs.”  One such program was the privatization of water distribution in Mindoro. 

According to Irein, Joly Peng, owner of the night club Pegasus, invested in 2001 in a water privatization program which earned the ire of the Calapan populace since they would have to pay now for what used to be free. Irein, as the secretary general of the provincial chapter of Karapatan then, was at the forefront of the fight against the private takeover of the water supply. 

The dispute about water privatization was just one of the many instances that earned for Irein the military’s ire.

As a speaker in protest rallies, Irein is always fiery and agitating. On several occasions, she would be heard cursing the military.

On March 23, 2002, Irein once again spoke at a protest rally but got involved in a brawl with a soldier who tried to get the megaphone she was using.  Upon hearing the incident, her mother suffered an attack of hypertension and had to be confined at a hospital. 

It was then that Irein’s family asked her to leave her house, fearing that she would soon meet the same fate of the countless dead she had documented.

Youth leader

Irein finished college at the Divine Word College of Calapan (DWCC), earning a degree in Bachelor of Science in Computer Science.  In her second year, she volunteered to become part of Karapatan’s quick reaction team, a group tasked to immediately respond to incidents of human rights violations. The following year, she was voted member of the school’s Student Body Organization (SBO) and given the chairmanship of the Students Rights and Welfare Committee. Later, she assumed bigger roles, such as being the chairperson of the National Union of Students in the Philippines-MO Chapter from 1998-2000 and SBO chair in 1999-2000.

Irein faced her biggest challenge as a student leader when she led her schoolmates in their fight against another round of tuition increase in their school.

In the letter drafted by the school addressed to the Commission on Higher Education regarding tuition increase and wherein Irein was supposed to be one of the signatories, Irein refused to sign and instead wrote “No to tuition increase” above her name. She was then a graduating student and the leadership award that she was supposed to receive was given to someone else. The tuition increase also pushed through, much to the disgust of Irein.

It was while attending provincial youth summits that she first met the late human rights lawyer Juvy Magsino then a Naujan town councilor.  “Attorney Magsino shared with me her rich experiences as a human rights lawyer and a public servant,” Irein says of her early memories of Magsino.

Activist at heart

With her family short of money, Irein decided to work as a documentalist at the Diocese of Calapan. But at the same time, she worked as a part-time volunteer for the peasant group KASAMA-MO (Katipunan ng mga Samahang Magbubukid sa MO). 

Often, her deep concern for the people’s movement led her to sneak out from her work at the parish and join workers’ pickets and other protests.  “I would integrate with the workers.  Sometimes I would sleep at the picketline,” she said. 

After three months of diocese work, Irein decided to work full-time for the local peasant group.  “Hindi ko na natiis” (I couldn’t wait any longer), she said. 

It was in 2001 that she became the secretary general of Karapatan, the same time that the military Task Force Banahaw arrived in the province.  “We already expected human rights violations to escalate with the pouring in of soldiers in our province,” she said.

In preparation for the military presence and the expected harassment that would surely follow, the human rights group trained its officers and volunteers on basic human rights work such as paralegal work and documentation.

Irein recalls how their “rag-tag team” managed to survive with the support of truck and tricycle drivers.  “We simply hitched rides with truck or tricycle drivers to get to the place where human rights violations have been reported.  Some of them already knew us and would offer a ride whenever they saw us,” she said.

The anticipated intensification of human rights violations soon became a grim reality. Reports came one after the other.  “Naranasan namin yung hindi pa kami tapos gawin ang dokumento ng isang kaso ay may kasunod na kaagad” (At times, the investigation of one case has not been finished when another incident takes place), she said. 

In October 2001, for example, Karapatan volunteers had their hands full when three successive killings happened in Mansalay town. On Oct. 5, Bubud Usting, a 65-year old Mangyan, was found beheaded. On Oct. 6, Rolando Cabagay, a member of the newly formed Bayan Muna-Mindoro, was killed reportedly by soldiers of the 16^th IBPA and paramilitary men. On Oct. 8, Roger Fernando, a village chief and another BM member, was killed reportedly by members of the 6^th Special Forces Company. 

Serious threats

The successive killings of BM members went on until 2002.  In the first half of the year, 10 members were killed. The killings included the massacres of the Albarillo couple on April 8 and the Apolinar family on May 20 in the town of San Teodoro. 

But members of progressive organizations, including Irein, felt chilled to their bones when BM Coordinator Edilberto “Choy” Napoles was shot dead at noontime on May 28, 2002, just a few steps away from the BM office in Calapan City. 

It was also during this time that Irein received serious threats to her life. The military distributed black propaganda materials against her and other militants.

Before Napoles was killed, members of the 6^th Special Action Forces Company led by M/Sgt. Larry Hilario distributed a paper on May 10, 2002 that directly threatened Irein, Napoles, Dr. Jun Saturay of BM, Ruel Landicho and Amir dela Cruz of the fishermen’s group Pamalakaya-MO.  Part of it stated, ‘and if you persist in what you do, we will be forced to use violence to suppress and eliminate all of you.” The paper was signed by a group calling itself Mindoro Laban sa Karahasan (Mindoro Against Violence or MILABAN KA). 

Another material, this time found in the campus of DWCC, was signed by the so-called Integrated Mindoro People against Communist Terrorist (IMPACT). 

All materials charged progressive legal organizations as being front organizations of the Communist Party of the Philippines, the National Democratic Front and the New People’s Army.  As such, the papers said, members of the said groups were legitimate targets of military execution. 

Time to go

Even Irein’s family was not spared from the threats.  In an affidavit signed on Oct. 29, 2002, her parents testified that military men wearing the nameplates of Portugal, Olandes and Sgt. Cagaanan went to their house on Sept. 7 and 12, asking for Irein’s whereabouts. 

The affidavit quoted the military as saying that if they see Irein by chance, they would kill her.

On Sept. 15, a M/Sgt. Hilario went to their family’s village and convened the villagers. He asked the villagers who among them was Irein’s father.  When Irein’s father stood up, Hilario started screaming that Irein was an NPA before she became a volunteer for Karapatan. 

Apart from the public threats and black propaganda, Irein also had to endure sexual advances from the military.  In Nov. 2002, when she and some Karapatan members went inside a military camp in Pinagsabangan I in Naujan town to look for an abducted farmer, Lt. Rommel Malcolm, commanding officer of the Delta Company of the 68^th IB, made verbal sexual advances at Irein.  At first, Irein said, she was so shocked and had to control the urge to slap his face.

It was not the last time that she had to suffer advances from Malcolm and other military officers, obviously intending to intimidate her. She would also receive calls from unidentified men asking her about a certain Ka Jordan, a well-known member of the NPA in the province. 

It was partly because of the series of intimidation that Karapatan decided to bring Irein to the regional office in Batangas. 

“I was literally whisked off by some friends from Calapan to Batangas,” she recalled.  They rode a small boat to get to the Calapan port where Irein transferred to a commercial ship.  “But I rode beside the captain so no one would see me,” she said. 

Since then Irein has held office in other provinces. By then, she had taken over the work of Eden Marcellana.

At present, Karapatan-Southern Tagalog is holding office at the national headquarters of Karapatan in Quezon City, their temporary refuge from the military’s brutality.  

“We have been uprooted from our town, from our province and now, from our region.  For upholding human rights we have become victims ourselves,” said Irein. 

Long-time struggle

Security threats have already become an ordinary fare for Irein and she says her resolve to serve the people who have trusted her has not wavered. “Sa dami na ng napatay at sa dami na ng nangyari, kung aalis ako sa ganitong gawain, dapat nuon pa,” (With the number of people killed and other incidents increasing, if I leave this kind of job I should have done it earlier), she said. 

But the young girl also has her crying moments. 

When she attended the funeral of Magsino and Fortu on Feb. 21, in Naujan, Mindoro, she was surprisingly quiet during the funeral march.  It was the second time she stepped on the island again since she left two years ago. The first was for Marcellana’s wake.

“How’s your homecoming?” a Bulatlat.com writer asked her.  “Of course I’m a little gloomy.  Everytime I come home there’s a funeral,” she answered. 

She cried upon seeing Magsino’s mother inside the Naujan gymnasium where necrological rites were held.  “Recovering from this incident was hardest because the ones who were killed were not just co-workers but very close friends,” she said.

Facing the odds

But while human rights workers continue to face great odds in Mindoro, Irein and many others continue to persist with their advocacy.

For Irein, the area where she works does not matter.  She continued to feel the same intensity and dedication for human rights work wherever she is.  Although the threats to her life persist, there is no stopping the youthful firebrand from Mindoro.

“The continuing violations of the rights of the people tell me there is a lot more work to do,” she said.  Bulatlat.com

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