It felt a little strange seeing Donato Continente for the first time. He was completely the opposite of the Ka Donat I had in mind- tall, grim-and-determined-looking and fierce. Donato Continente, arguably the most popular political detainee of recent times is in fact, calm, gentle-looking and definitely not a stereotype of an ex- detainee.
BY TERENCE KRISHNA LOPEZ
Contributed to Bulatlat
Vol. VII, No. 24, July 22-28, 2007
TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol – It was beside the sea, almost eleven in the evening, with no traffic on the road other than occasional cars and bikes passing by when I met this man I have been dreaming of talking with since his release. He was coming from the pier with other delegates of the recent documentation training sponsored by the human rights group Karapatan (Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights), held in the province.
It felt a little strange seeing Donato Continente for the first time. He was completely the opposite of the Ka Donat I had in mind- tall, grim-and-determined-looking and fierce. Donato Continente, arguably the most popular political detainee of recent times is in fact, calm, gentle-looking and definitely not a stereotype of an ex- detainee.
But of course, he wasn’t just a detainee. He was imprisoned for 16 years and eight months and became recent political history’s poster boy for the human rights struggle behind bars. Sixteen years of leading hunger strikes with inmates, fighting for human rights inside a jail, capturing international communities’ attention, building a family behind bars.
Interesting is definitely his middle name.
It has been two years now since he was released in 2005.
Then again, this was my dream and so I did not let go of the chance to have a good conversation with Ka Donat and write about it.
The interview happened in the last night of the training. Not beside the sea anymore, but near enough to feel the breeze and hear the music of the trees around us
A commitment unscathed
I first asked him whether his 16 years and eight months inside a prison cell changed him and his commitment to the national-democratic movement.
Ka Donat was an organizer of the youth group KADENA (Kabataan para sa Demokrasya at Nasyunalismo or Youth for Democracy and Nationalism) when he was arrested in 1989.
According to him, his 16 years of imprisonment did not change so much of him with regard to the struggle for democracy. In fact, he said, it made him more committed to the movement. Especially so, he said, that one would feel more intensely the slap of human rights violations when under detention.
“As a political detainee, I was always asked if I will still go back (to the movement) after I am released,” he said. “My constant answer was, I will never go back to anywhere because I never left in the first place.”
It can be recalled that Ka Donat always figured in national news while he was inside the National Bilibid Prison.
