HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
13 Days of Torture Under the Military
Sixty-year old peace
advocate Angelina Bisuña Ipong complains of illegal arrest, physical
torture and molestation after being illegally arrested by the military on
Women’s Day, March 8. “I pleaded for mercy,” she said in her written
statement, “but all they said wala nay kalooy-kalooy dinhi.” (we
have no mercy).
BY DABET CASTAÑEDA
Bulatlat
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Sixty-year-old peace advocate Angelina
Bisuña Ipong complains of illegal arrest, physical torture and molestation
after being arrested by the military on Women’s Day, March 8. “I pleaded
for mercy,” she said in her written statement issued March 22, “but all
they said was wala nay kalooy-kalooy dinhi.” (we have no mercy).
Intelligence operatives escort
Angelina Bisuña, accused of being
an NPA leader, into a military camp.
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The Western Mindanao Region (WMR)
chapter of the human rights group Karapatan (Alliance for the Advancement
of Peoples’ Rights) said Ipong was arrested while having a consultation
regarding the implementation of the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for
Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) and the status
of the peace talks between the Government of the Republic of the
Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP).
Ipong was charged with rebellion and
triple murder at the Dipolog Regional Trial Court in Zamboanga, southern
Philippines.
However, Jenah Belza, Karapatan-WMR
deputy secretary general, said Ipong’s arrest by the military was illegal
as no warrant of arrest was issued at the time she was seized. A warrant
was issued only on March 17 or nine days after she was abducted by at
least 10 armed men wearing ski masks and fatigue shorts at Anastacia
Mission Village, Barangay (village) Lumbayao, Aloran, Misamis Occidental.
When she was presented to the media on
March 15, Armed Forces Southern Command (Southcom) chief Lt. Gen. Alberto
Braganza alleged that Ipong is the deputy secretary of the Western
Mindanao Regional Party Committee of the Communist Party of the
Philippines (CPP).
Hunger strike, torture
In her written statement, Ipong said
10 burly men took her while she was having her afternoon rest. She was
dragged into a silver white van and blindfolded. After driving for about
two hours, her blindfold was removed and she found herself inside a nipa
hut. Somebody took her pictures; she was offered food but she refused to
eat. This was the start of her hunger strike.
Ipong said she was again blindfolded
and was driven away by the van. Later she found herself in a room where
she would stay for the next three days. She was left incommunicado. Only
two men went inside the room to interrogate her.
Four days later, she was told to dress
up. Blindfolded, she was then led to a car and was later told to board a
helicopter. The travel took two hours, making Ipong to believe that they
were headed for the Southcom headquarters.
They touched down at their destination
late in the afternoon, Ipong wrote. She was left alone in an
airconditioned room with two chairs, a table and a big mirror in front.
She was allowed to go to the toilet once and was given a big jar where she
could put her waste.
She was subjected to another round of
interrogation that lasted for about 30-45 minutes. While denying all
allegations thrown at her, she was hit on her sides and on the head by a
man with a “big commanding voice.”
A man warned her that if she does not
cooperate, a “berdugo” (villain) would come and rape her. Then the
man left taking all her belongings with him. She was left sitting down
with her head resting on the table.
An hour later, another man whom Ipong
described in her statement as “stern looking” went to her and took off her
blindfold. This time, she wrote, her interrogators used a different tactic
to persuade her to talk.
Ipong said a man entered her room and
appeared to be “very concerned.” He offered her food and asked her what
she wanted. She complained about her belongings being taken away from her.
Later, she was given a folding bed and was given back her belongings. The
man left after about 30 minutes.
Molestation
But another man entered the room and
blindfolded her. He was followed by three men to begin another round of
interrogation.
This round seemed to be the worst, she
said. “They mauled my left and right shoulders…, gave me a punch at the
side…, struck me on the head with a rolled paper,” she said.
“Then they started undressing me…they
begun making fun of my breasts… started unbuttoning my shorts and pulled
down my panty…they started touching my private parts,” she continued.
“I shouted for mercy…I asked them to
treat me with respect but they just laughed,” she wrote.
“I was very weak and at this instance
I lost consciousness,” she wrote. The last thing she could remember was
that one of the men said “ako gyod ning isulod akong tudlo (I will
insert my finger), set the aircon at maximum.”
When she regained consciousness, she
said she was still hog-tied and was shivering. She was not able to sleep
that night.
Case filed
The next day, March 13, the first man
who interrogated her came back and started to question and torture her
some more. He left after about 45 minutes.
After about an hour, the “nice man”
came back, prodded her to eat, gave her a pen and paper and asked her to
write her bio data. But because she was too weak the “nice guy”
volunteered to write down her answers to his questions.
Since it was the sixth day of her
hunger strike, Ipong started vomiting and experience head pains. It was
then that she answered “yes” to all her captors’ allegations.
After that incident, Ipong wrote that
the whole atmosphere changed. She was told that she would be able to avail
of her rights like having a counsel, visitation rights and a promise to be
given humane treatment.
On the afternoon of that day some
members of the Judge Advocate General Office (JAGO) went to her and
presented the two cases filed against her. “I’ll face that in court,” she
supposedly told them as members of the JAGO promised to contact her lawyer
from Pagadian City. The army judges never came back.
City jail
On March 18, Ipong was transferred to
the Molave Municipal Hall after an hour flight and later to the Ramon
Magsaysay prison. Late in the afternoon military men from the 5th
Army Brigade guarded the area, Ipong wrote.
The following day, she was brought to
the Pagadian City jail. Sensing that her ordeal was over as she was
already with “other people,” Ipong lifted her hunger strike and started
eating lanot (translation) and lugaw (rice broth).
It was only on March 21 – or 13 days
after she was abducted - that she was allowed to see her lawyer, Andres
Arcilla, and volunteers of Karapatan-WMR chapter.
The human rights group has condemned
the spate of human rights violation cases allegedly perpetrated by the
military in their region. Other reported cases include the summary
execution of seven month-old pregnant Myrna Tabata allegedly by the 4th
Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army (IBPA), the massacre of the
Monsalud family in Zamboanga del Sur allegedly perpetrated by the 10th
IB PA, and the shooting of peasant activist Teofilo Lagunda.
Ipong’s case is the 13th
illegal arrest and arbitrary detention in the region, Karapatan’s records
show.
Karapatan has accused the Southcom for
violating Republic Act 7438 that allows lawyers, immediate family members,
spiritual counselor and a doctor to visit a person arrested or under
custodial investigation at any time. Bulatlat
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