As Ferdinand Marcos Jr. delivers his third State of the Nation Address on July 22, Desaparecidos, or Families of the Disappeared for Justice, demands answers not only for the persistence but the rapid rise in the number of victims of enforced disappearance in the Philippines.
The first major human rights violation under the Marcos Jr. regime was the abduction of women activists Elgene Mungcal and Ma. Elena Pampoza on July 3, 2022 in Tarlac, just three days after the new president took power. The grant of a court-issued protective writ for Mungcal and Pampoza in December 2022 has not resulted in their surfacing.
Since this opening salvo, 10 more activists have been abducted, forcibly disappeared and have remained missing under Marcos Jr.’s watch.
On April 19, 2023, habal-habal drivers Renel delos Santos and Denald Mialen and their passenger Lyn Grace Martullinas were abducted in Negros Occidental. NDFP consultant Rogelio Posadas, who was traveling with Martullinas, was surfaced a day later by the military as an alleged casualty in a supposed armed encounter.
Nine days later, Cordilleran activists Dexter Capuyan and Gene Roz Jamil “Bazoo” de Jesus were abducted on April 28, 2023 in Rizal. They have been missing for more than a year.
Another three activists went missing in September 2023. Peasant organizer Deah Lopez was abducted on September 15 in Negros Occidental. The habal-habal driver she hired to transport her was later found dead with evident signs of torture.
On September 29, farmers Norman Ortiz and Lee Sudario were seized by armed men in military uniform from a village in Nueva Ecija. We decry the decision of the Commission on Human Rights in Region 3 to terminate its investigation into their disappearance on lame excuses.
In November 2023, another two individuals were forcibly disappeared—fisherfolk organizer Mariano Jolongbayan on November 17 in Batangas and peasant organizer Mar Silos on November 29 in Quezon.
On April 10, 2024, labor organizer William Lariosa was abducted in Bukidnon by elements of the 48th IBPA. He has not been heard of as of this writing, despite efforts by his family and human rights workers to ascertain his whereabouts. A petition for habeas corpus filed by his wife with the courts has been denied.
The reality of abductions and enforced disappearances under the Marcos Jr. regime is sharply drawn through the accounts of abduction victims who managed to survive their ordeals.
Activists Eco Dangla and Jak Tiong, who were abducted on March 24, 2024 in Pangasinan, would have been added to the growing list of victims of enforced disappearance under the Marcos Jr. regime, had they not been surfaced.
Environmental activists Jonila Castro and Jhed Tamano were likewise abducted on September 2, 2023 in Bataan but secured their freedom by turning the tables on their kidnappers during a press conference designed to present them as “surrenderees.”
Earlier, activist couple Dyan Gumanao and Armand Dayoha were abducted as their ship docked in Cebu City on January 10, 2023 and surfaced five days later after being coerced into signing up to become state agents.
Cordilleran activist Steve Tauli suffered the same ordeal when he was abducted, physically assaulted and interrogated by state agents on August 22, 2022 and surfaced a day later, but not before he was forced to sign a document agreeing to become an informer.
The stories of these abduction survivors prove the existence of a vast network of secret prisons and places of detention where State forces can commit torture and other human rights violations with impunity. Many of the desaparecidos may be languishing in these secret prisons that form part of the state’s repressive machinery. This, despite the existence of Republic Act No. 10353, a law that penalizes enforced disappearances and the maintenance of safehouses.
Desaparecidos demands that the Marcos Jr. regime put a stop to the abductions and enforced disappearances of activists, human rights defenders and other dissenters. It wants answers to the disappearances of their loved ones and calls for the surfacing of all victims of enforced disappearance. It demands justice for all victims of abduction and accountability for all perpetrators of this evil act.
