Desaparecidos’ kin gather at Baclaran church

Families of thousands of desaparecidos gathered at a shrine, dedicated to the memory of those who disappeared, on the grounds of the Baclaran church in Pasay City to observe All Souls’ Day.

Corazon Estojero, spokeswoman of the Families of Victims of Involuntary Disappearances (FIND), said they prayed, lit candles and offered flowers for their missing relatives at the Bantayog ng mga Desaparecido (Monument to the Disappeared). The shrine was built in 1994.

She said that unlike today’s politicians, their missing kin “were serious and sincere in their commitment to serve the people… quick to defend the poor and marginalized.”

“If the testimonies of surfaced desaparecidos Raymond and Reynaldo Manalo are any indication, victims of enforced disappearance are heavily tortured before they are summarily killed,” Estojero said.

The Manalo brothers, who escaped from their captors after 18 months of captivity, said they were “beaten severely, bathed in their (own) urine, whipped with a chain with a barbed wire attached at the end, had water poured into their nostrils, and were made to eat rotten food.”

FIND called on the government to stop enforced disappearances, all acts of torture, and extrajudicial executions, and for Congress to immediately enact separate laws penalizing enforced disappearance and torture.      – Rhodina Villanueva