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YESTERDAY, Aug. 30, was the International Day of the Disappeared. Desaparecidos are people seized, presumably by state agents, and never seen again. They are victims of enforced disappearance.
Western Visayas has several cases, the two most prominent are activists Maria Luisa Posa-Dominado and Nilo Arado. The two were abducted by armed men on the evening of April 12, 2007 in Barangay Cabanbanan, Oton, Iloilo while travelling home from Antique. Up to now, their families do not know that happened to them, or where they are, or if they are still alive or already dead.
Dominado was spokesperson for Panay of the Samahan ng mga Ex-detainee Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto (Selda), while Nilo Arado was chairperson of Paghugpong sang mga Mangunguma sa Panay kag Guimaras (Pamanggas). Just this April, families, friends and co-workers marked the 10th year of their disappearance.
Enforced and involuntary disappearance is one of the most cruel forms of human rights violations. The kin, especially the immediate family of the victims, suffer the pain of loss, helpless in thinking that their loved ones may be in a very difficult situation. Luisa’s and Nilo’s children are still in the dark as to what happened to their parents. As a tribute to all victims of enforced disappearances and to symbolize the protest against cruel and tyrannical means used to silence legitimate dissent, the families, friends and colleagues of Luisa and Nilo erected a marker in Barangay Cabanbanan, Oton.
The families petitioned for a writ of habeas corpus and a writ of amparo at the local courts. They also brought the case to the United Nations’ Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances. But there is no closure, even after 10 years, and that makes it even worse.
It has been a decade since the abduction but the Dominado and Arado families have not received any satisfying answer. And the perpetrators are still scot-free. We decry the inaction of the government in this incident. It is no surprise that human rights groups and progressive people’s organizations continue to protest against impunity that is behind enforced disappearances and other human rights violations. Impunity reigns supreme in an unjust society that breeds abject poverty, landlessness, lack of jobs and dirt-poor wages for workers, and leads to the people’s resistance against their exploiters and oppressors.
Only when the Luisas and Nilos of this country will have no reason to fight social ills can justice be truly attained.
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