HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
When a Long Search Is Never Over

From Bulatlat, July 9, 2006

The personal belongings of Rogelio Calubad and his son Gabriel have been packed inside a brown, traveling bag carried around by Rogelio’s wife Elizabeth. The two were abducted and have been missing since June 17, and Elizabeth admits that she is uncertain how long her search for her loved ones will take.

Article and Photo by DABET CASTAÑEDA

Two toothbrushes, shavers, six pairs of underwear, ointment for arthritis, shampoos and toothpastes in sachets, pants, shirts and two woven blankets (malong) fill the brown traveling bag of Elizabeth Bernas-Calubad, 53.

Carrying this bag and some personal belongings, she traveled six hours from Calauag, Quezon (232 km. south of Manila) on June 22 to search for her husband, Rogelio, and son, Gabriel in Metro Manila.

Elizabeth hails from the town of Calauag in the province of Quezon. Her first trip to Manila was in the 1990s to look for a job. After more than a decade, she anxiously went back to Manila, to look for her loved ones.

Losing track

Rogelio, 53, and Gabriel, 29, were reported abducted by six burly men early morning of June 17 in Barangay Bangkuruhan, Calauag, Quezon. A witness account, as documented by the human rights group Karapatan (Alliance for the Advancement of Peoples’ Rights), said that father and son were riding a motorcycle on the way to a relative’s farm in the same village when two other men on a motorcycle blocked their way and forced the Calubads’ motorcycle to crash to the ground. Meanwhile, four other men alighted from a dark blue van and took Rogelio with them. Gabriel was made to ride the abductors’ motorcycle. The Calubads’ motorcycle was left lying on the ground.

That was the last that Rogelio and Gabriel were seen.

It was only the next day, June 18, when Elizabeth knew what transpired in Bangkuruhan village. “Pero nung hindi pa sila umuuwi nung gabi ng June 17, ihi ako ng ihi every 30 minutes,” she said. “Hindi na ako mapakali. Text ako ng text sa kanila hindi sila sumasagot.” (When they failed to come home on the night of June 17, I was so worries, I kept urinating every 30 minutes. I kept texting them but there was no answer.)

“Kaya pala,” she then said with sadness painted all over her face. (Then I found out why.)

The worried Elizabeth asked the help of village officials, who then accompanied her to the Calauag Police Station to report the incident. PNP Intelligence Division officer Nestor Afuen told Elizabeth that another village official turned over the Calubads’ motorcycle the day before. Elizabeth was able to identify the motorcycle because of its plate number (EB 8664).

Elizabeth said that the police officer told her to take the motorcycle with her but she declined. “Ang hinahanap ko yung mag-ama ko hindi yung motor,” she recalled telling the police. (I’m looking for my husband and son, not for the motorcycle.)

From the police station, Elizabeth and the village officials went to detachment of the 76th Infantry Battalion of the Phil. Army at Brgy. Biñas and were able to talk to the detachment commander named Ben Tibano. The group also went to Camp Villasara of the 417th PPMG located at Brgy. Sta. Maria where they were able to talk to the public information desk officer. The military denied they had the Calubads with them.

It was then that Elizabeth sought the help of Karapatan’s regional chapter where one of its human rights workers accompanied her to Manila.

In Manila, Elizabeth and human rights workers searched for the Calubads in the police and military headquarters in Camps Crame and Aguinaldo in Quezon City and Camp Olivas in Pampanga (66 km north of Manila).

Revolutionary heritage

In a media statement, the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) recognized Rogelio Calubad as one of its consultants in the Bicol Region and a JASIG (Joint Agreement on Security and Immunity Guarantees) holder. As such, the NDFP said he should have been protected from any form or arrest or abduction.

Revolutionary blood runs deep in Rogelio, known in the underground movement as Ka Rudy according to his wife.

Rogelio’s father, Juanito, and uncle, Rodrigo, were members of the Hukbong Mapagpalaya ng Bayan (HMB), the guerillas who continued the struggle after World War II.

Their involvement in armed struggle had cost the brothers their lives. Elizabeth said Juanito was shot dead by soldiers during Martial Law in 1975, while he was working in his small farm in the town of Buhi, province of Camarines Sur. Rodrigo escaped from the soldiers until 1982, when soldiers caught up with him and also shot him to death in the town of Iriga, in the same province.

These violent deaths, however, only toughened the next generation of Calubads. Rogelio and his brother, Cesar, were already young activists when Martial Law was declared in September 1972.

When Rogelio and Elizabeth got married in 1975, Elizabeth said her husband was already in the underground movement.

On Aug. 10, 2005, elements of the Police Mobile Group (PMG) arrested Cesar in the town of San Fernando, province of Camarines Sur.

In his own testimony, Cesar said he was mistaken for his brother Rogelio, whom the police were after.

On September of the same year, Elizabeth said some men came to their house in Apad-Lutao village, Calauag town, Quezon province, supposedly to conduct a census. Conspicuously, she said the men only asked for her middle name and surname.

Innocent

It was a puzzle for Elizabeth why her husband’s abductors also took her son.

Gabriel graduated at the Mabini Colleges in Daet town, province of Camarines Norte, with a degree in General Radio Communications Operation. He also took a certificate course as Radio Technician at Tesda in the town of Labo, same province. He works as a community technician when unidentified men forced him to disappear.

Elizabeth describes her son as a “quiet citizen” who has “no vice.” Therefore, she said government authorities should have no grudge against him.

The younger Calubad has an only child who, Elizabeth said, has gone sick with diarrhea since Gabriel went missing.

Torture

“Sana nakakayanan ng aking mag-ama ang tortyur,” Elizabeth said during this interview. (I hope my husband and son are able to take the torture.)

Since she strongly believes only the military would have the motive of abducting the two, Elizabeth feels they are being tortured by their abductors. She found out her brother-in-law, Cesar, was heavily tortured while in detention from August to December last year.

But the pain of searching for a loved one who disappeared without a trace is itself a lengthy torture to the victims’ family, Elizabeth admits. “Mabuti sana kung nalaman ko na patay na sila. Hindi na sana ako maghahanap,” she said. (Knowing that they are dead is better than looking in vain.)

Although she said she was used to not seeing his husband for long periods of time because of his work in the underground movement, Elizabeth said his disappearance now is different because of the pain that it brings to their family.

“Noon alam ko na naglilingkod sya para sa bayan. Panatag ang loob ko dahil alam ko may laban sya,” she said. “Pero ngayon, nangangamba ako dahil maaari syang i-salvage. Maaaring hindi ko na sya makita.” (I feel better knowing that he is in his place of work, where he could defend himself. But now, I’m worried that he might have been killed, and I may never see him again.)

“Sa ginagawa nilang pagtatago sa kanila, tinanggalan din nila kami ng karapatan na malaman kung nasaan sila,” she said holding back her tears. (The abductors who are hiding them have also violated our right to know where they are.)

Without a trace

The phenomenon of the desaparecidos or victims of enforced disappearances shocked the world mid-1970s when around 6,000 to 24,000 individuals were reported disappeared in Argentina under a military dictatorship. The practice of enforced disappearance persisted in other countries where struggles for social justice pursued.

In Columbia, the nongovernmental Association for the Families of the Detained and Disappeared (ASFADDES) documented 7,000 forced disappearances nationwide through 2003; the accelerated rate for 2002 and 2003 was nearly five disappearances per day.

Mothers of the disappeared of Algeria made their first public demonstration in September 1997 for visiting foreigners to protest 3,000 people who have disappeared in police or military custody

In Bosnia, 10,701 individuals have been reported missing since 1995. The number includes 570 women, as well as more than 1,000 infants and children. Majority of the disappeared had been possibly killed in mass executions and buried in mass graves.

An estimated 30,000 to 60,000 people disappeared in Sri Lanka between 1988 and 1991.

Since the twelve-year civil war between the US-backed army and left-wing guerrillas ended in 1992 in El Salvador, about 700 guerillas and civilians are still believed to be missing.

A report by the Hondurian government in 1993 said major human rights violations were committed in Honduras in the 1980s, such as the forced disappearance of 184 people for political-ideological reasons by the state's repressive forces in conjunction with the U.S.’ Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

In the Philippines, the Families of Victims of Involuntary Disappearances (FIND) documented 855 cases of enforced disappearances under the Marcos dictatorship (1972-1986). Of these, 596 are still missing, 127 were found dead and 132 surfaced alive.

The biggest number of reported cases of enforced disappearances was during the six-year term of post-dictator president Corazon Cojuangco-Aquino who declared an “all-out war” against communist rebels. Of the 820 people reported missing, 612 have been documented. Of that number, 407 are still missing, 108 surfaced alive and 97 were found dead.

There were 87 reported disappearances under the term of President Fidel Ramos, while 58 cases were reported under the three-year term of Joseph Estrada.

In more than six years of the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo administration, 176 have been reported missing. The latest victim is Emerito Lipio, 41, a provincial coordinator of the Pinagkaisang Samahan ng mga Tsuper at Operator Nationwide (PISTON) in Bulacan (52 km north of Manila) and a member of its national council.

Karapatan blames the heightened incidence of enforced disappearance to Macapagal-Arroyo’s declaration of an “all-out war” against the underground and legal Left forces. The beleaguered president, who is facing a second impeachment when the 14th Congress opens in July, recently turned down formal peace negotiations with the NDFP, a united front organization led by the Communists Party of the Philippines (CPP).

In the last six months, Karapatan documents show that 54 have been reported missing. Of this number, 38 were from Central Luzon, one of the “priority areas” of the government’s Oplan Bantay Laya (OBL), the counter insurgency program of the Macapagal-Arroyo administration. This is also where the president’s supposed henchman, Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan heads the army.

Palparan has been charged of numerous human rights violation cases since 2001. He is said to be responsible for 25 cases of enforced disappearances in Eastern Visayas when he headed the 8th Infantry Division from February to September 2005.

Never over

“Dinala ko ang mga ito tuwing lalakad kami para hanapin sila para pag nakita ko sila ibibigay ko agad,” Elizabeth said as she fixed Rogelio and Gabriel’s personal belongings into the brown bag. She said the only things that the two brought with them when they were abducted were two hammers, two axes, one saw and a mobile phone. (I always bring these with me in my search, so that I could give it to them when I find them.)

Unlike other families of victims of enforced disappearances, Elizabeth has not gone to hospitals, morgues or funerals. She is uncertain how long her search will take and how long Rogelio and Gabriel’s personal belongings will wait inside the traveling bag.

“Hindi ako naniniwalang patay na sila,” she said adding that she was determined to search for her loved ones. (I don’t believe that they are dead.)