Bulatlat - The Philippines's alternative weekly newsmagazine

This story was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org).
Vol. VI, No. 14, May 14-20, 2006

MISSING: DOJ’s Rebel No. 23

His name appearing as No. 23 in the Department of Justice (DOJ) list of 51 individuals charged with rebellion, Phillip Limjoco disappeared on May 8 and remains missing to this day. Limjoco’s disappearance came more than two months after the declaration of Presidential Proclamation No. 1017 on Feb. 24 putting the country under a state of national security.

BY BULATLAT

His name appearing as No. 23 in the Department of Justice (DOJ) list of 51 individuals charged with rebellion, Phillip Limjoco disappeared on May 8 and remains missing to this day.

Limjoco’s disappearance came more than two months after the declaration of Presidential Proclamation No. 1017 on Feb. 24 putting the country under a state of national security.

Beleaguered President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo declared PP 1017 after top military officials announced on the same day they thwarted a plot to topple the administration. The foiled coup, military officials later said, was a handiwork of rightist and leftist rebels.

Three days after, on Feb. 27, the DOJ came out with a list of 51 individuals charged with rebellion. The list included six party-list representatives and alleged leaders of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).

Limjoco’s son, Glenn, reported his father’s disappearance to the human rights group Karapatan (Alliance for the Advancement of Peoples’ Rights). In an interview with Bulatlat, Glenn said their family started to get worried about Limjoco’s condition after he failed to show up in their meeting place in the afternoon of May 8.

Glenn said their family suspects the military as behind his father’s disappearance. He also said their family noticed intelligence surveillance and received threats last year. Due to this, they filed a harassment case against the Intelligence Services of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP) on the same period.

“If the military has a case against my father, they have to present him to court and give him due process,” Glenn said.

Karapatan lists Limjoco’s case as the 16^th enforced disappearance since January this year. Bulatlat

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