Torture Victim Identifies Military Officer as Captor During CA Hearing (tags)
Torture victim Raymond Manalo identified one of his captors during the continuation of the Cadapan-Empeño hearings at the Court of Appeals in Manila, Jan 18. Manalo took the witness stand for the second time to testify that he had been in detention together with the two missing University of the Philippines (UP) students Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeño and farmer Manuel Marino who were abducted June 26, 2007 in the province of Bulacan. The writ of amparo filed by the parents of Cadapan and Empeño has made headway as Manalo identified one of their captors in open court. In his first testimony in December, Manalo said he, together with his brother Reynaldo, was abducted on Feb. 14 and was secretly detained in several military camps in Central Luzon. He also said he had talked to Cadapan several times during detention and the UP student had told him she had been raped by soldiers.
PHILIPPINES: 2 desaparecidos escape from military captors (tags)
Two farm workers who claim to have been detained and tortured for a year-and-a-half by military men before managing to escape have petitioned the Supreme Court (SC) for protection. Represented by lawyers from the civil rights group Free Legal Assistance Group (Flag), the two brothers in their 13-page petition yesterday also asked the high tribunal to designate either an incumbent or retired SC justice to act as a commissioner and verify the allegations. The two brothers, Raymond, 26, and Reynaldo Manalo, 38, filed the suit for prohibition, injunction and temporary restraining order (TRO) through Flag lawyers Jose Manuel Diokno, Theodore Te and Ricardo Sunga.