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For a running account of Melissa Roxas's testimony, read Bulatlat's Twitter feed. Read her opening statement in Congress here. Melissa Roxas takes her oath right before making her opening statement. (Photo by Fred E. Dabu) CHR chair Leila de Lima (right) was also...
"I have reason to believe that the Philippine military were the ones who abducted and tortured me, and held me captive for six days. I do not like to dignify the allegations being hurled at me now as they only echo what my abductors have been forcing me to admit during my interrogation and illegal, incommunicado detention."
Melissa Roxas’s description of the place where she was brought and tortured seemed consistent with what the CHR found during a visit to Fort Magsaysay. But military officials deny soldiers were behind the atrocity. “Fort Magsaysay is a tourist destination,” one of them told the commissioners.
Melissa Roxas at the hearing on her case before the Commission on Human Rights in Quezon City. The hearing was still ongoing as of noon time Thursday. (Photos by Ronalyn V. Olea / bulatlat.com) Click here for more on Melissa Roxas and her abduction and...
MANILA -- Melissa Roxas, the American activist who was kidnapped and tortured allegedly by Filipino soldiers in May, arrived from the United States last night to pursue her case against her captors. In a press conference at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport,...
A Bulatlat.com Exclusive Having to leave the Philippines for the United States when she was nine years old was a particularly painful experience for Filipino-American Melissa Roxas. Her desire to trace her roots brought her back to the country of her birth where, in May, soldiers kidnapped and tortured her for days.
Independent probe needed -- Bayan MANILA -- The umbrella group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan doubts the Malacanang probe into the abduction of Filipino-American activist Melissa Roxas will lead anywhere. Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita recently ordered the...
One of them, Juanito Carabeo, is now with his parents but has refused to talk about the torture that he, like Melissa Roxas, went through. The other, John Edward Jandoc, has not been heard from, although the human-rights group Karapatan said he is now with a relative. He, too, refuses to talk about the abduction and torture.
The crimes and other atrocities stemming from the implementation of Oplan Bantay Laya are directly instigated by the so-called “war on terror,” which the Bush regime exported to and imposed on the Philippines. The Obama government is faced with the challenge of stopping the war begun by its predecessor – a war that has caused countless human-rights violations in the Philippines and its other “fronts.”
The Office of the Solicitor General told the Court of Appeals that the abduction and torture of Melissa Roxas are nothing but mere fabrications to embarrass the government. Her recent press conference in Los Angeles, it says, was part of the plot. The victim’s lawyers and supporters, however, say the government is just trying to evade responsibility.
By RONALYN V. OLEA Human Rights Watch Bulatlat MANILA -- Filipino-American Melissa Roxas finally broke her silence and recounted her ordeal in the hands of the military. Roxas and her two companions, Juanito Carabeo and John Edward Jandoc, were abducted in the...
Audio: Melissa Roxas Vows to Pursue Justice
LOS ANGELES, CA – In her first public appearance since being released from captivity, Melissa Roxas, a U.S. citizen abducted and tortured in the Philippines from May 19-25, will hold a press conference to describe the human rights abuses she endured while held for...
In protest rally Friday in front of Nica building, human-rights groups denounce the continuing use of torture. They likewise commemorate the third year of the disappearance of UP students Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeño. Edita Burgos says the promotion of three officials linked to the abduction of her son Jonas will encourage more atrocities.
Dear Friends of Melissa Roxas, We are sending this to you on behalf of Melissa Roxas because you either expressed concern over Melissa’s abduction and torture in the Philippines last month or she provided email addresses of her friends she wanted updated now that...
Melissa Roxas Case: Military Is Accountable
“I thought I was going to die there and then,” Melissa Roxas says. “They held my feet and my hands down and doubled-up plastic bags were pulled down on my head and face and closed on my neck and I started to suffocate and I could not breathe anymore and I was seeing white and thinking I was going to die.” | JOHN EDWARD JANDOC, MELISSA'S COMPANION, REMAINS MISSING
By the New York Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines The abduction, captivity, and surfacing of Filipina-American activist Melissa Roxas serves as a due wakeup call to many Filipinos in the United States that no critic of the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo...
Bayan countered by saying that “the PHRC, by prejudging the incident as a mere propaganda tool by Bayan and Karapatan, shows that it has really no intention of uncovering the truth behind the abduction of Roxas and company. The Philippine government is more...
MANILA -- In 2007, Melissa Roxas moved to the Philippines to pursue what a colleague of hers described as "human-rights advocacy full-time." Prior to Roxas's move, she had been active as a founding member of the cultural organization Habi-Arts in Los Angeles. She...
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