Rights group happy
that missing couple surfaced
Press Release
By KARAPATAN
December 29, 2007
QUEZON CITY,
Philippines – Rights group express
joy on the sudden surfacing of the couple Manuel Pajarito and Juliet
Fernandez after seven months of disappearance but also harbor serious
doubts on their fate and ask that the military be held accountable for
their illegal arrests and arbitrary detention.
Fernandez, 32, was
abducted by elements of the 52nd IB on May 11 in Calbiga town, Samar.
She organized local fisherfolk to join the Pambansang Lakas ng
Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya).
Fernandez was formerly
a member of the peasant women's group Amihan. She also served as
secretary-general of Gabriela Youth while she was a student.
Families and relatives
of Pajarito and Fernandez have been searching them for so long. They
had sought assistance from human rights groups to search for them. On
June 19-21, a fact-finding mission was conducted by Karapatan and
Gabriela to search for Juliet Fernandez. The team visited the 801st
Infantry Brigade but Major Armand Rico denied having custody of
Fernandez and refused to issue a certification denying her custody.
The team also went to the police stations of Calbiga and Pinabacdao
but they did not find any police blotter on the abduction of Fernandez
and Pajarito. Last October 16, Gabriela launched a protest action in
front of Camp Aguinaldo to demand that the military surface peasant
leader Juliet Fernandez.
"We are surprised by
the testimonies made by Fernandez and Pajarito that they were treated
kindly. Their public presentation by the military has all the
hallmarks of a staged or scripted play. Given the length of time they
were in the complete control, custody and even mercy of the military –
in absolute isolation from anybody else – and given serious reports of
torture, intimidation, and even rape, the voluntariness of their
statements that are not only self-incriminatory but unbelievably
wholly favorable to their captors remain dubious, if not contrived.
The couple must be completely set free from the control of their
captors so that they can tell their real story."
The mere deprivation
of liberty and denial of their custody to their families is definitely
a kind of treatment that they don't deserve considering the fact that
on mere suspicion they were abducted. It adds insult to injury that
persons who are disappeared will be forced – under pain of further or
future threat and harm to them and their families – to absolve from
any liability their captors who capitalize on the basic instinct for
survival." Karapatan Secretary General Marie Hilao-Enriquez said.
"The Pajarito and
Fernandez case clearly points that the military, specifically the 62nd
IBPA under Lt. Col. Jonathan Ponce is committing the dastardly act of
disappearance, illegal arrest and detention contrary to what
government functionaries, under a president who condones and tolerates
them, has parroted that they are not involved in any of these crimes
on hapless civilians." Enriquez added.
Reference:
Marie Hilao-Enriquez, Secretary General, Contact Number - 09178176274
