Pressure mounts on gov't over missing CAR activist

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – Domestic and international pressure is mounting on the government over the disappearance of a Cordillera activist James Balao, who was allegedly seized by military men.

The Baguio City government and the municipal council of La Trinidad, Benguet have separately issued resolutions condemning the disappearance of James Balao, a descendant of a large Chinese-Japanese clan in Benguet, last Sept. 17.

Balao’s colleagues at the Baguio-based Cordillera People’s Alliance have blamed the military for his disappearance. The Armed Forces Northern Luzon Command has dismissed the allegation as “mere leftist propaganda.”

For his part, Mt. Province Gov. Maximo Dalog, regional head of the League of Provinces and former chairman of the Regional Development Council, called on Balao’s abductors to release him “in the spirit of the upcoming Christmas season.”

In a statement, Balao’s alma mater, the University of the Philippines Baguio, also expressed alarm over the disappearance of the activist who it said has had “accomplishments as a graduate and alumnus of UPB, particularly his decision to use his academic training and many talents in the service of the Cordillera region and the interest of the Cordillera people.”

Senate Minority Floor Leader Francis Pangilinan also denounced Balao’s disappearance, as left-leaning congressmen led by Bayan Muna Rep. Teodoro Casiño also did.

Even the US Embassy acknowledged the case, including it in its human rights report to the US State Department.

But the Civil Relations Unit 11 based at Camp Allen in Baguio City denied that the military had any hand in Balao’s disappearance.

Navy Lt. Senior Grade Thomas Yu-ing, chief of the 11th CRU, said Balao “is not a public figure to magnify attention from the military intelligence.”

Balao’s disappearance, Yu-ing added, is only being used to create a collateral damage on the military and relate it to calls for the President to resign from office.

In a circular last Sept. 25, the Amnesty International said, “The possible enforced disappearance can only be understood in the larger context and longer history of enforced disappearances, unresolved abductions, extra-judicial killings, and systematic repression of dissenters or perceived subversives that have characterized government and military policy in the Philippines.”

Balao’s kin and colleagues have petitioned the Benguet regional trial court for a writ of amparo to compel his abductors to surface him.

They asked the court “to issue an inspection order directing public officers who control the military and police detention facilities where (he) is allegedly kept to allow authorized persons to inspect, measure and survey the property or any related object or operation.”

The petition, the first in northern Luzon, was raffled off to La Trinidad RTC Branch 63 Judge Benigno Galacgac.