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Monday, October 30, 2017
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AS FILIPINOS gird for the traditional observance of All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day, we can’t help but think of the desaparecidos or victims of enforced / involuntary disappearance and their families.
With no tombs where to light candles and offer flowers, the pain being suffered by these families is unimaginable. They thirst for justice. They want to know what happened to their loved ones. They fear that only in the afterlife shall they meet again. There is no closure, and their gnawing pain won’t cease until justice is served.
As they pay tribute to their missing loved ones, reiterate their demand for justice and seek accountability, we can show we are one with them. We should not mourn in silence because there are persons who should be haunted by their crimes against the disappeared, their families, and the Filipino people in general.
Since Marcos’ martial law, hundreds if not thousands have been politically abducted and remain missing to this day. From north to south, families of the disappeared suffer. Worse, enforced disappearances continue despite the enactment of a law criminalizing enforced disappearances.
The government enacted an Anti-Enforced Disappearance Law, or Republic Act 10353 in 2012. Though considered a landmark legislation in Asia, no convictions have been made under the law. No arrests have also been made to make perpetrators of past cases accountable, and such a practice is still being used – presumably by State security forces against activists and members of progressive organizations.
Enforced disappearance is one of the worst forms of human rights violations, and a reminder that there should be justice, and a stop to abductions and torture. Until when shall the families of the desaparecidos search for their missing loved ones? Until their tears have dried up and their strength gone? Their torment is never-ending – a manifestation of the prevalent climate of impunity in the country.
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