Missing sisters and missing credibility

BRUCE VAN VOORHIS

Column: Rights and Wrongs, UPI Asia Online [

http://www.upiasiaonline.com ]



HONG KONG, China, --The daughters of slain Filipino peasant activist Eddie Gumanoy – Rose Anne, 21, and Fatima, 17 – were traveling to the city of Cavite on the morning of July 3 when they realized they were

being followed. They sent a text message to their mother Maria to

meet them at a mall in Muntinlupa, but the two sisters never arrived.

They later sent a second text message saying they had been intercepted

by soldiers.

The family and members of the human rights group Karapatan (Alliance for the Advancement of People's Rights) thus began looking for the two women. On July 4, they went to the office of the Intelligence Services of the Armed Forces of the Philippines at Camp Aguinaldo, which denied that the military was holding Rose Anne and Fatima. They also filed a complaint with the Philippine National Police in Camp Crame in Quezon City.

That afternoon army spokesman Col. Ernesto Torres denied that the military had abducted Rose Anne and Fatima, but did admit that the two women were under the care of the army. He refused to disclose where they were, however, stating that the young women had voluntarily sought protection from the military as they were afraid of Karapatan.

By the following day, July 5, the family had learned that Rose Anne

and Fatima were in the army hospital at Fort Bonifacio, and they went

to see them. Their visit was conducted in the presence of army

personnel, and a female soldier, Weng Arcel, kept answering the

questions that Maria asked her daughters. She wanted to know, among

other things, if it was true that they had sought protection from the

military.

The family learned that Fatima, according to an army doctor who

refused to give her name, was under observation for a urinary tract

infection. The next day the same doctor told the family she had

contracted German measles. Maria wanted to take Fatima to another

hospital to see a doctor of her own choice, but the unnamed army

doctor prevented her from removing Fatima from the military hospital.

This account is Karapatan's version of the two missing sisters whose

father Eddie, a peasant leader, was killed in April 2003 with human

rights activist Eden Marcellana in Mindoro Oriental. Karapatan and

others hold the military in the area, under the command of Maj. Gen.

Jovito Palparan Jr. at the time, responsible for these two

extrajudicial killings.

The military’s account is that the daughters of Eddie Gumanoy

ran away from a Karapatan safe house. Rose Anne had arranged to meet

some "soldier friends" at a Makati City mall to help her get medical

care for Fatima, who had a high fever. Rose Anne had met the soldiers

at an army hospital in Quezon City after her arm was severely wounded

in a clash between the New People's Army and the military on April 15

in General Nakar in Quezon Province. Rose Anne, a suspected member of

the NPA, was captured in the firefight and has been charged with

rebellion. Karapatan provided bail for her and arranged for her to

stay in their safe house.

At a press conference at Fort Bonifacio, Rose Anne said, "First of

all, we deny the mistaken accusations and newspaper reports that we

were forcibly abducted and held by the Philippine army."

"We willingly went with them (the 'soldier friends') to Fort

Bonifacio," she added, "so we could rest and get help for my sick

sister. On the evening of July 3, we were taken to the Fort Bonifacio

hospital where my sister is now recuperating."

Fatima did not speak at the press conference.

It is difficult to determine which account of the missing sisters is

true; for although Rose Anne confirmed the military's version of what

occurred to them, it must be kept in mind that the press conference

was arranged by the military and was held at a military headquarters

in Metro Manila. The two sisters were also still under the

"protection" and influence of the army. What is clear about this

incident, however, is that it raises many questions.

First of all, was Rose Anne really free to relate the facts of the

case at the press conference?

Why did she feel compelled to seek the assistance of the military for

her sick sister? Could she not just have contacted her family?

Would someone who was charged with rebellion, accused of being a

member of the NPA and whose father was allegedly killed by the

military seek friendship with soldiers?

Why did the female soldier keep answering the questions of Rose Anne

and Fatima's mother at the military hospital about her missing

daughters? Was the female soldier better informed of the answers than

the two sisters?

Why was Maria, the mother of Fatima, not allowed to take her daughter

to another hospital to seek treatment from a doctor of her choice?

Why would Rose Anne and Fatima be afraid of Karapatan as alleged by

the military spokesman Col. Torres after Karapatan had provided them

with a safe house and had paid Rose Anne's bail?

These are some of the questions that initially come to mind. Most of

them, of course, are directed at the military's version of the

incident. Why? Because the credibility of the military and, indeed,

the Arroyo administration itself is threadbare. Years of

extrajudicial killings and disappearances under the Arroyo government

that have primarily been laid at the door of the military by the

president's own Melo Commission; the U.N. special rapporteur

responsible for investigating extrajudicial killings, Philip Alston;

and human rights activists inside and outside of the Philippines,

immediately generate questions about the integrity of government and

military officials, especially in a case that initially was feared to

be the disappearance of family members of a person who was killed

several years ago.

In addition to the hundreds of extrajudicial killings and

disappearances since Arroyo became president in 2001, several

corruption cases in just the past year are dodging the

administration. These do not engender faith in the veracity of anyone

connected to the government. Moreover, government actions – such

as trips abroad that Perry Diaz in his online column PerryScope notes

– cost Filipino taxpayers 588.5 million pesos (US$12.92

million) in 2007, and government inaction – such as failing to

address the needs of the country's poor who earn less than US$2 per

day, which the Grameen Foundation estimates at 40 percent of the

population – also do not reflect a government that cares much

about the lives of its people.

Perhaps the military's account of the missing Gumanoy sisters is the

correct version of events, but until people responsible for the

country's extrajudicial killings and disappearances are prosecuted

and imprisoned, until corruption is eradicated, until poverty is

given more than rhetorical band-aids, the words and actions of those

connected to the Arroyo administration will continue to be

questioned.

The missing sisters were found and were fortunately found alive. The

missing credibility of government and military officials can be found

too. It will take a different mindset and a different reaction though

to the problems of the country, a mindset and reaction that indicate

that those in power want to serve the interests of the people rather

than their self-interests and that the lives of the Filipino people

matter to them.

--

(Bruce Van Voorhis is a staff member of the Asian Human Rights

Commission in Hong Kong whose work often focuses on the Philippines.

In addition to working at the commission since 2000, he is also a

co-convener of the Hong Kong Campaign for the Advancement of Human

Rights and Peace in the Philippines, a coalition formed in April 2005

to respond to the upsurge of extrajudicial killings in the country.)

http://www.upiasiaonline.com/Human_Rights/2008/07/16/missing_sisters_and_missing_credibility/6840/