This story
was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly
newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org).
Vol. VII, No. 11, April 22-28, 2007
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
Abducted Urban Poor Leader Files Criminal, When
63-year-old urban poor leader Lourdes “Nay Ude” Rubrico was abducted by armed
men on April 3, she had prepared herself to die. For one week she was illegally
detained, interrogated and threatened by some 20 men in an air force camp in
Batangas province, yet she lived and was released by her captors. On April 20,
she filed criminal and administrative charges against her abductors and captors,
whom she identified as military officers and men. BY
DEE AYROSO A woman urban poor leader
who survived abduction has filed criminal and administrative charges at the
Ombudsman against military officers and men, whom she said forcibly took her,
interrogated and detained her illegally for one week in an air force camp in
Batangas province. Lourdes “Nay Ude” Rubrico,
63, chair of Ugnayan ng Maralita sa Gawa at Adhika (Urban Poor Association for
Action and Aspiration, UMAGA Federation) said she was kept incommunicado after
her abduction on April 3, and was released only April 10 after she signed a
paper agreeing to become a military “asset”. “Kung hindi ko gagawin
iyon, mabubulok ako doon” (If I
didn’t sign, I would be made to rot there), she said. It was the only way she
could go home, and now she wants to get back at those who violated her rights,
she said. On April 20, Nay Ude was
accompanied by her children when she filed complaints at the Ombudsman in Quezon
City against her abductors and captors whom she named as Capt. Angelo Cuaresma,
Ruben Alfaro, Jimmy Santana, a certain Jonathan of the Philippine Air Force
intelligence, and Major Darwin Sy of the Philippine Army whose vehicle was used
in her abduction. Cuaresma belonged to the 301st Air Intelligence
and Security Squadron based in Fernando Air Base in Lipa City, Batangas where
Nay Ude was detained for seven days. The criminal charges she
filed against the men were warrantless arrests, illegal detention, and
coercion. She also filed an administrative case of abuse of public authority. Saying that her abductors
failed to break her spirit, Nay Ude said she is determined to fight back. “Ipagpapatuloy
ko ang paglaban. Habang buhay na lang ba tayo di kikibo? Paano naman ang iba na
dinukot at di pa nakikita?” (I will continue the fight. Are we going to be
silenced forever? How about the others who were also abducted and still remain
missing?) Interrogation It was April 3, Holy
Tuesday when Nay Ude was abducted from a Holy Week gathering of her group
outside a house in Megahouse, Sta. Cruz 1 village, Dasmariñas town, Cavite
province. The abductors woke her from her nap and introduced themselves as
agents of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI). While she resisted, Nay Ude
was dragged into a waiting brown van with plate number XRR 428, where she saw
Jimmy Santana, a military intelligence who frequents the Dasmariñas municipal
hall. She was then blindfolded and taken for a four-hour ride. Nay Ude said
she was brought to an air-conditioned office where she could hear planes landing
and taking off. She later managed to snitch a document from a desk in that
office, which was a mission order with the heading “Confidential, 301st
Air Intelligence and Security Squadron, PAF Field Station, Fernando Air Base.”
The plate number of the vehicle was traced to Major Darwin Sy of the Phil.Army. In that office for seven
days, some 20 men took turns interrogating her, repeatedly asking about her
connection with the underground left, and about certain names and their
whereabouts. In protest, she refused to eat anything and subsisted only on
water. She said most of the men
seem to be young, although their faces were covered with handkerchiefs. They
addressed her as “Nay Ude”, and most of them could not stand up against her
reasoning. And when her captors were brusque, she would shout back at them.
“Aminin mo na, NPA ka”
(Admit it, you are with the New People’s Army) Nay Ude recalled how one of her
captors insisted. “Tingnan n’yo nga ako,
matanda na ako, kaya ko pa bang humawak ng baril!”
(Look at me, I am already old. Do you think I’m
still capable of holding a gun?), she answered back. She recalled that her
interrogators reasoned out that no organization would last long without the
support of the communists. “Bakit pa kami
nagtitiyagang nagbabayad ng buwis? Di sana pumunta na lang kami sa bundok! Para
saan pa ang SEC registration? Dapat sana alisin na lang yun kung komunista pala.
At sabi sa batas, sa Bill of Rights, magbuo ng organisasyon, may kalayaan tayong
magsalita… Kami ba lumabag sa batas?”
(If we are rebels, why do we bother to pay
taxes? We could have just gone to the mountains. Is the SEC registration
useless? They should just discard that if they knew we were communists. And
the law provides, in the Bill of Rights, that we could form organizations, that
we have freedom of speech. What law have we broken?) she said. During her interrogation,
Nay Ude repeatedly explained to her interrogators that UMAGA Federation
increases in membership because it organizes informal settlers to fight for
their right to shelter. “Kami ang hinahanap ng tao kasi nakakatulong kami sa
mga dinedemolish para magkaroon ng matitirhan, makahanap ng mapagbabahayan.
Nagbabayad naman kami (People look for us because we help those who get
demolished to find homes. And we pay for our home lots),she said. UMAGA Federation is a
member of the Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap or Kadamay. Nay Ude’s group has
eight affiliate organizations in different towns in Cavite, and nearby cities in
Metro Manila. Nay Ude said that when her
interrogators ran out of questions and reasons, they would be silent and leave
the room, to be replaced by the next batch of interrogators. Although she was
not tortured, Nay Ude got headaches, and an asthma attack which made her captors
panic. They immediately brought her medicine and pleaded with her to eat. Nay
Ude said she still refused to eat, and sarcastically asked for poison.
Release On the third day, Nay Ude
said she went wild and screamed at her captors. The men then blindfolded her,
took her outside and started digging. To this she cried and scorned her
captors. “Wala ba kayong mga puso? Bakit ninyo ako ginaganito? (Have
you no hearts? Why are you doing this to me?) From the start, Nay Ude
said she had prepared herself to death. She told her captors to just make sure
that they leave her body by the roadside, for her family and friends to find.
The men brought her back inside. After that, Jimmy Santana
asked her to sign a piece of paper which says she agrees to be an “asset.” Nay
Ude said Santana offered money and “a good life” but she refused, saying she
doesn’t need anything because she was already old. On April 10, Santana again
asked Nay Ude to sign the agreement, threatening that he could no longer ensure
that she will live if she did not sign. Realizing it was her only way out, Nay
Ude signed it, after which the men congratulated her and shook her hand.
Santana gave her a SIM card which she was supposed to use to report to him when
to capture a certain Yolly and Leny. At 8:30 pm April 10, her
captors blindfolded her and brought her to a vehicle, which dropped her off at
SM Pala-Pala, Cavite. Under threat Nay Ude said she and her
family had left their compound in Dasmariñas for fear of a military reprisal.
She said Santana threatened to find her if she did not comply with the
agreement. While she recovers from her
ordeal, Nay Ude is assured that her group members are carrying on with the
tasks. Members of the UMAGA Federation have set up a picket at the Megahouse
because of threats of a demolition from their rival group, Barangay Alternative
Community Leaders (BACAL). BACAL was organized under the office of the
Provincial Governor and collects P5,000 from the urban poor families promising
that they will be given housing units in Megahouse. This week, Janice Gomez,
the witness to her abduction was warned by BACAL that her house was to be
demolished by the police. Nay Ude, however said that Janice’s house stands on
the area which government had already agreed to award to residents. Proof The organization Families
of Desaparecidos for Justice (Desaparecidos) said that Nay Ude’s testimony is
proof that the state employs enforced disappearance as a means to weaken its
perceived “enemies.” Ghay Portajada,
Desaparecidos spokesperson said: “Victims are abducted, tortured, and
interrogated by military forces, who use government vehicles, and hide victims
in military camps, headquarters, and government offices. This has been attested
to by those who were abducted and surfaced either in prison, or were sent home
after being coerced into becoming assets of the military.” She said Nay Ude’s ordeal
shows the pattern used by state forces, in which a victim was abducted, brought
to a safehouse or headquarters where they tried to extract information from her
at the same time break her through interrogation. This is followed by
converting her to their side, offering money in exchange for the capture of
another leader or organizer. Portajada cited the recent
case of two leaders who were abducted in Cebu City on April 12. Preciosa Daño,
a Bayan Muna coordinator and Kabataan partylist coordinator Beethoven Avila were
abducted by elements of the Military Intelligence Group, who beat them up and
tried to force them to admit involvement in the underground left. The two were
turned over by their abductors to the Philippine National Police when their
groups started picketing the Cebu Central Command headquarters. Portajada also cited Oscar
Leuterio, a former security guard who was abducted by the military and kept
incommunicado for five months at the Fort Magsaysay, and was allowed to go home
after he promised to work for them.
“And as the military gets the crime done, it is the Philippine
National Police which tries to cover it up with its so-called investigation. It
may be recalled that after Nay Ude’s abduction, the PNP came out with a
statement that she was involved in a land scam in Cavite,” said Portajada.
Nay Ude’s daughter, Joy, 25, said that they were suspicious that
the PNP were also involved. On April 6, Capt. Arsenio Gomez of PNP Cavite tried
to take her and the two witnesses, Janice Gomez and Rizalina Ramirez to
Siniguelasan, a remote village where there was a cartographer. When her older
brother asked why they couldn’t do it in the office, the police officer told him
not to ask questions. Fortunately, Joy had texted members of the Federation who
were able to follow them and return them home. Portajada said that
abduction victims who escaped, were surfaced in prison, or were allowed to go
home are few; many remain missing. Desaparecidos call is to open military
camps, detachments and safehouses to random searches by the families of the
disappeared. “We hail Nay Ude for her
shining courage as she fights back and moves to get justice served against those
who violated her rights. She risks everything, her family, but she knows she
has to continue to fight.” Bulatlat © 2007 Bulatlat
■
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Administrative Charges vs. Military Captors
Bulatlat