By EUGENE ADIONG and ARCHIE REY ALIPALO
BACOLOD City — Reminiscing the torment he went through during martial law makes Fr. Brian Gore, one of the famous “Negros Nine,” emotional.
“They never said, ‘Sorry,’” the Columban priest said of the perpetrators of human rights violations during what was considered the darkest days of the Marcos regime.
Gore was one of those accused of killing then Kabankalan Mayor Pablo Sola and four other companions on March 10, 1982.
Along with fellow priests Niel O’Brien and Vicente Dangan, and community organizers Conrado Muhal, Geronimo Perez, Jesus Arzaga, Peter Cuales, Ernesto Tajones and Lydio Mangao, Gore was charged with inciting rebellion and illegal possession of explosives and ammunition.
The military at the time claimed to have found a hand grenade and five bullets when they raided Gore’s compound.
Gore was one of the approximately 500 people who trooped to city hall here, called the People’s House, yesterday to file claims for human rights violations with the Human Rights Victims Claims Board. The filing of claims will only be until today.
“We want the people to know what happened to us, as well as to the other victims,” the Australian priest said, adding that filing the claim will make their case “a public record.”
Gore’s appointment yesterday juxtaposed with the 30th anniversary of a court decision that freed the Negros Nine.
Gore accused former ambassador Roberto Benedicto, a crony of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos and a former provincial commander of the Philippine Constabulary (now Philippine National Police) in Negros Occidental, as the brains behind their ordeal.
With their huge number, “the people filing their claims for compensation … want [others] to know what happened [to them],” said the priest.
According to Gore, human rights violators during martial law remain “scot-free” today. Even the now beleaguered Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile, allegedly the reason behind Marcos’ declaration, “wants to rewrite history,” he said.
“While we are being compensated, human rights violations continue,” Gore lamented.
They pervaded even the post-martial law administrations of Corazon Aquino, Fidel Ramos, Joseph Estrada and Gloria Macapagal–Arroyo, he said. “How about them (former presidents),” he asked.
In other countries, where there are truth and reconciliation commissions, violators of human rights get punished, said the priest. “If they (violators) acknowledge their wrongdoing, they will be forgiven, but if not, they will be prosecuted.”
In the Philippines, unfortunately, there is no such process, Gore said.
Under Republic Act 10368, the government has allotted P10 billion as reparations for victims of human rights violation during martial law.
But Gore said the financial compensation is too meager — if not completely inadequate — compared to the lives lost to human rights violations. “It cannot bring them back,” he said./PN
