This story
was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly
newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org).
Vol. VI, No. 51, Jan. 28-Feb. 3, 2007
Neri Colmenares
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 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. 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. 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 © 2007 Bulatlat
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On Torture, a Human Rights Code and Movie Acting
Bulatlat