NINETEEN years to the day since Ma. Luisa Posa-Dominado and Nilo Arado were abducted by elements of the Philippine military, their friendliness and good deeds remain fresh in the memories of family, friends, and those whose lives they have touched. Their legacy of service and sacrifice towards the vision of a better life for all is held as an example for many, young and old.
Our cry for justice does not end!
The enforced disappearance of Luisa and Nilo on April 12, 2007, was a desperate fascist attack of the Gloria-Macapagal l-Arroyo regime in the face of a mounting people’s movement. It was aimed at spreading white terror to counter the popularity of progressive party-lists as the national elections approached.
Luisa was an officer of the martial law survivors’ group SELDA and a Bayan Muna campaigner, while Nilo was chair of a farmers’ alliance, Pamanggas, and a nominee of the Anakpawis party-list. They were coming home from meeting different people’s organizations in Antique when waylaid on the highway in Barangay Cabanbanan, Oton, Iloilo, at around 9 o’clock at night.
The terrifying effect of the dastardly act was emphasized in the shooting of their companion, Leeboy Garachico, who was driving their vehicle, and the eventual burning of said vehicle in Janiuay town a few hours after the abduction.
Why the regime of Arroyo cannot escape accountability for the enforced disappearance is because of the pattern of this most cruel form of human rights violation that victimized 202 persons from 2001 to 2010, among killings and other atrocious attacks on unarmed citizens. These attacks on the people’s basic and legitimate rights continue blatantly, remaining as an intrinsic element of the present system of governance.
The state is, until this very day, resorting to white terror to cow its citizens into suffering in silence while it makes their living worse with faulty policies that plunge them deeper into the mud amid the worsening crisis. And the state conveniently labels them as terrorists and gets rid of them with its iron fist.
To cry for justice for Luing and Nilo is to cry for every victim of human rights violations perpetrated by the state, for every killing, arrest, and imprisonment on trumped-up cases, for every activist red-tagged, surveilled, and harassed, and for every bolantero driven from the streets and stripped not only of their goods but their very livelihood.
Justice for Luing and Nilo!
Justice for all victims of human rights violations!
End state repression! – SAVE LUISA AND NILO MOVEMENT, SAMAHAN NG MGA EXDETAINEE LABAN SA DETENSYON AT ARESTO, and PANAY ALLIANCE KARAPATAN <panaykarapatan@gmail.com>
