Son of ML desaparecido still seeking justice after 36 years

MANILA, Philippines — On a warm day in 1983, 16-year-old Ramil Flores was waiting for his father Severino to return from work. The day passed but the elder Flores did not come home.

Now, 36 years later, Flores still remembers that day vividly.

“(My father) was a union leader in Makati. He was arrested maybe in 1975, 1977, I cannot remember. He was kept at Camp Crame. After a year, he was released. He, however, continued his work (as a union leader),” Flores said in an interview with The STAR on Friday, Aug. 30, International Day of the Disappeared.

“In 1983, when he was coming home from work, he went outside. He was not able to go home anymore,” he added.

Flores is one of the 11 family members of Desaparecidos – or those who disappeared – who wrote to United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) chair Michelle Bachelet, at an event held at the Baclaran Church on Friday, to look into the cases of their missing family members.

The initiative of the Desaparecidos was in line with the recent passage of the Iceland-led resolution adopted by the UNHRC which tasked Bachelet to write a comprehensive report on the human rights situation in the country.

The letters will be brought to Geneva, Switzerland in September.

“We mark the International Day of the Disappeared as we continue to remember and fight for our loved ones,” said Erlinda Cadapan, chair of Desaparecidos and mother of desaparecido Sherlyn Cadapan.

She continued, “Many would want us to just forget, many would want to distort the truth, but we remain steadfast in serving witness to the horrible truth that our loved ones were taken away from us by the State. We write to UN High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet to appeal to her, that she looks into the plight of the disappeared, and as to how justice continues to evade us and our loved ones.”

Sherlyn, along with Karen Empeño, was abducted in 2006 – during the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo administration – by military men under the command of now retired general Jovito Palparan Jr. Horrific accounts of Sherlyn and Karen’s detention surfaced after a witness detailed the students’ ordeal. Karen and Sherlyn remain missing, but Palparan and two other military officials were convicted in 2018.

“Activists are still forcibly disappeared. This horror has not stopped, and even if we have isolated victories in court, this does not equate to our loved ones coming home to us. Please investigate the cases of enforced disappearances and also listen to the families of the victims; hear us,” Cadapan stated.

As of June 2019, there are allegedly already 10 victims of enforced disappearances under the Duterte government.

In his letter, the now 52-year old Flores asked Bachelet to also look into the cases of desaparecidos dating back to the Marcos era.

It was earlier reported that there were thousands of desaparecidos in the country – with thousands more subject to human rights violations – during the 21-year presidency of the late Ferdinand Marcos.

Also present at Friday’s event were other kin of the disappeared who wrote letters to Bachelet.

One was Consolacion Torres, who is asking Bachelet to intervene and order the Duterte administration to set her husband, Joey Torres Jr., free.

“We are asking for (Bachelet’s) help to give justice to my husband and to other families of desaparecidos victims, because the justice system in the country is very slow for us poor people... So, I am asking for the justice that we have been longing for,” she said. – With Rhodina Villanueva