Neri
Colmenares
On Torture, a Human Rights Code and Movie Acting
Bayan Muna’s third nominee for the May 2007 congressional elections,
lawyer Neri Colmenares, talks about how he was tortured at 18, his dream
of putting into law an overdue Human Rights Code, and his early dreams
of making it to the movies.
BY DABET CASTANEDA
Bulatlat
|
Is the Philippines
ready for a Human Rights Code?
Neri Colmenares,
party-list group Bayan Muna’s (BM) third nominee in the May 2007
elections, has long dreamed of writing a bill codifying all the laws on
human rights.
A congressional
rookie candidate at 47, Colmenares, who is a lawyer, says a Human Rights
Code is long overdue. This, he says, will be his priority bill if he
gets to serve as BM’s third representative for the third regular session
of the 13th Congress, a position last held by Joel Virador.
Virador will carry the party-list group’s colors in the May 2007 local
elections in his hometown, Davao City, southern Philippines.
|
Atty. Neri Colmenares speaks during a lawyers’ rally for civil
liberties in Manila, 2006
|
In the Philippines
where violations of human rights are being committed large-scale
reminiscent of, sometimes even worse than, during the Marcos
dictatorship (1972-1986), the incidents are not considered crimes under
the judiciary. They however constitute war crimes and crimes against
humanity under international law.
When an individual
is tortured by state agents, for example, the victim cannot file a
“torture” case but of “physical injuries;” the callous “involuntary
disappearance” is simply “kidnapping” in legal parlance while “political
killing” is known as “murder.”
“But human rights
violations are essentially different from ordinary crimes,” Colmenares
says, because these are crimes against humanity that affect not just the
physical but the mental, psychological and emotional state of the
victims and their families.
“I should know,” he
adds.
Five nights of
torture
In 1978 at the age
of 18, Colmenares was arrested by agents of the Philippine Constabulary
(PC, now the Philippine National Police) in Bacolod City, central
Philippines and was subjected to five nights of torture.
“Sa gabi lang kami
tinotortyur kasi sa umaga regular ang opisina sa PC headquarters kaya
madaming tao” (We were tortured at night because at daytime during
regular office hours there would be several people), he recalls.
His
arrest, he says, was part of the crackdown on church people in the last
quarter of the 1970s. Already an activist at 15, Colmenares jointed
Catholic organizations such as the Student Christian Movement (SCM) and
the Student Catholic Action of the Philippines (SCAP). He had just been
elected as National Council member of the SCAP when arrested.
His
torture, he recalls, was excruciating and degrading but adds “mas
malala pa din yung sa iba kasi bata pa ako nun” (I was young, others
suffered more).
His
torturers, he says, told him to write a “confession” about his
involvement in the underground movement on an onion skin bond paper.
Then he was forced to chew and swallow the paper. He says he was also
given the “regular fare” - sinipa, pinalo, pinaso ng sigarilyo
(kicked, beaten up, burned with cigarettes).
But
the worst, he says, was not the beating. “There comes a point you become
numb.”
In one
instance, one of the PC interrogators engaged him in a Russian Roulette.
“It was 2 a.m. and the barrel felt chilly. He did it twice, buti
hindi pumutok” (fortunately, the gun didn’t fire), he says with a
tinge in his voice.
In a
recent medical check-up, he says his doctor found he had a broken
septum. “I never knew my nose was ever broken. Baka tinamaan nuon sa
torture” (It must have been hit by torture).
He
remembers he was brought to the hospital on the sixth day of his arrest
because his tonsils were so swollen he could not even drink. It was only
then that his parents learned he had been arrested and detained. The
military convoy carrying him had to pass by the Colmenares house because
the poor young man had no money.
Getting off the truck, his military escorts asked his parents to
accompany him to the hospital to be treated for torture injuries and pay
the bill. His father was a bank employee while mother was working at the
municipal hall of their hometown, Bacolod.
“Imagine how my parents got the shock of their lives, finding me sick,
beaten black and blue and bruised inside a military truck with a platoon
of soldiers on guard,” he chuckles.
Second time around
After
a year, the illegal possession of firearms (IPF) case against Colmenares
was dismissed simply because the police had no confiscated firearm to
present in court. He was set free.
|
Colmenares left for Manila where he volunteered for several religious
organizations until he was transferred to the Cagayan Valley region,
northern Philippines in 1983 as a youth organizer.
Only
five months into organizing student councils in the region, Colmenares
was again arrested, this time by military agents under the command of
then PC Lt. Rodolfo Aguinaldo who was known for his notoriety as a
torturer. Colmenares was charged with rebellion and detained for three
years.
The
next thing he knew he was having a reunion with his parents who
travelled all the way from Bacolod to his detention cell at the PC
headquarters in Tuguegarao, capital of Cagayan.
“Sanay
na si Nanay (mother) bumisita sa nakakulong” (My mother got
used to visiting me in prison). He recalls his mother bringing him his
favorite tortang talong (fried eggplant topped with ground beef
and chopped potatoes), medicines, and some clothes.
|
Atty. Neri Javier Colmenares leads a
performance during the congress of the International Association of
People’s Lawyers (IAPL), Oct. 14 |
After
his release in 1986 following the fall of the Marcos dictatorship,
mother pleaded with him to finish college. So Colmenares went to the
Philippine Christian University (PCU) in Manila where he spent his first
year in college and led the founding of Blue and Silver, the
university newsletter.
He
said being a lawyer was not in his plans at this time. “Actually ang
gusto ko maging artista” ( I wanted to become an actor) he
deadpanned, “o kaya reporter.”
In
1987, Colmenares finished his economics degree in San Beda College and
took up law at the University of the Philippines (UP). He is now
finishing his masters degree at the University of Melbourne in
Australia.
The
lawyer
In his
early years as a lawyer, Colmenares had his share of run-of-the-mill
civil cases, mostly on marital separations and annulment. But he has
spent much of his time handling human rights cases.
He
has, in fact, argued before the sala of Honolulu Judge Manuel Real
during the deliberations on the class action suit against the Marcos
Estate for violations of human rights during martial law. Colmenares is
one of the 10,000 victims who filed the case against Marcos.
He is also co-convenor of the
lawyers group Counsels for the Defense of Liberties (CODAL).
Congress
This
may be his first time to take a chance at representing Bayan Muna as its
third nominee in Congress, but legislative work is not new to Colmenares.
He has been the party-list group’s general counsel since 2000.
He was
also a co-author of the two impeachment complaints filed in Congress
against President Macapagal-Arroyo in 2005 and 2006. He also argued
before the Supreme Court (SC) under then Chief Justice Hilario Davide,
Jr. on the constitutionality of the National ID System and recently on
BP 880, the Calibrated Pre-emptive Response and Executive Order 464.
The
declaration of a state of national emergency by the President in
February 2006 saw him again facing the same high court to argue on the
constitutionality of Proclamation 1017.
His
latest SC appearance was in connection with the constitutionality of the
Peoples Initiative of Sigaw ng Bayan as counsel for intervenors
in the Lambino vs Comelec case.
Politics
If
elected, is he ready for the long, round-the-clock debates at the House
of Representatives? “I’m not a hypocrite to say I’m not afraid to argue
with (looks at the ceiling), Lagman, for example,” he says. Then his
normal bubbly self turns sombre. “But I’m ready to engage them because I
believe most of their arguments are totally, legally baseless.”
“Mas
madalas nakukuha lang nila sa garapal” (Most of the time they
engaged in demagoguery), he adds.
“If you study the bill
right, find the weaknesses and engage its proponents to a debate, the
proponents will look horrible once they ram it down our throats,” he
says. He learned this lessonduring the recent debates on the proposal to
create a Constituent Assembly.
Threats
With
123 out of the 824 victims of political assassination during the past
six years being members Bayan Muna, Colmenares said he has become used
to threats and harassments. He faces the issue squarely, though. “Who’s
not afraid of faceless people who shoot you?” he asks. “I dread the
killings but I continue to hold on to my principles.”
He
further explains: “The unjustness and atrocities of a system are so much
that the fear factor is completely subdued. The sense of outrage wins
over the sense of fear for physical safety. The sense of justice for the
victims removes the notion that I’m going to hide because I’m afraid.”
Bulatlat
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