Tomorrow, Thursday, 30 August 2007, families, relatives and friends of desaparecidos the world over will once again observe the International Day of the Disappeared.

On Thursday last week, 23 August 2007 at 1:11 in the afternoon, lawyers from the Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG) filed on behalf of surfaced desaparecidos Raymond and Reynaldo Manalo, who escaped from their captors on 13 August 2007, an unprecedented petition for prohibition, injunction and temporary restraining order before the Supreme Court.

They petitioned the Supreme Court to stop respondents Secretary of National Defense and the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and/or their officers or agents from depriving the petitioners of their right to liberty and other basic rights.

They also prayed the Supreme Court to immediately place the brothers under the Court’s protective custody and to put in place all measures to secure their physical safety (excluding the use or participation of military, police or other law enforcement agents as well as the witness protection program of the Department of Justice).

Moreover, they asked the Court to authorize, empower and direct a Commissioner of its choice to independently examine Raymond Manalo on his handwritten statement, to investigate the various places of detention mentioned in the said statement, to order a medical examination and to undertake any and other means of protecting the Manalo brothers.

Realizing the urgency of the petition, the Supreme Court through the Honorable Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno issued a temporary restraining order the following day, 24 August 2007. The TRO required the respondents, their agents, representatives or persons acting in their place or stead, to comment within a non-extendible period of five days from notice, and enjoined them not to cause the arrest of petitioners, or otherwise restrict, curtail, abridge or deprive them of their right to life, liberty and other basic rights.

The International Convention on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, which the Philippines has yet to sign, considers enforced disappearance as the “arrest, detention, abduction or any other form of deprivation of liberty by agents of the State or by persons or groups of persons acting with the authorization, support or acquiescence of the State, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or by concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person, which place such a person outside the protection of the law.”

Involuntary disappearance is unique even as it is grotesque because it is committed by State agents against the very people they have sworn to protect. These are indeed reprehensible acts that must be punished severely as the people’s self-same protectors become their attackers and executioners.

The case of the Manalo brothers sears this Representation’s mind as he remembers his brother, Atty. Hermon C. Lagman, a labor and human rights lawyer, who like most victims of enforced disappearance never had the opportunity to escape. Mon was abducted by military agents while waiting for a ride on EDSA on 11 May 1977. On this day commenced his thirty-year enforced disappearance, and counting.

When Mon was a political detainee in Fort Bonifacio in 1972, he wrote several letters to our mother and to this Representative.  In one that he wrote on December 17, 1972, he recounted, “at sunrise today, while standing idly in the morning cold, I saw two sparrows perched together on the TV antenna … the two birds looked at us, human beings here. I looked at them. They seemed to have more understanding than some men.”

Mon was right. Some human beings do not only lack understanding. Many do not understand nor have respect for basic human rights of their fellowmen.

Enforced disappearance is a despicable crime against human dignity, against humanity.  The uncertainty of the victims’ fate inflicts untold suffering and immeasurable pain on both the disappeared and their families.

Mr. Speaker, esteemed colleagues, until now when this Representation’s mother remembers her missing son, she would almost without fail murmur, “maybe they even ordered him to dig his own grave.” I am sure that even the very brave Edita Burgos, mother of disappeared Jonas Burgos, cannot help imagine the indignities that her dear son could have been subjected to.

Enforced disappearance violates not only the right to liberty and security of  person, which are guaranteed by the Constitution, but practically all human rights including the paramount right to life. The victims are deprived of due process of law and are forced to endure unimaginable indignities and unspeakable atrocities in the hands of the perpetrators.

In their petition, the Manalo brothers claim to have been “… beaten severely; bathed in their urine, whipped with a chain with a barbed wire attached to its end; had water poured in their nostrils; and were made to eat rotten food…”

The State is vested with immense powers for the defense of the people’s rights and the advancement of their welfare and wellbeing. Thus, if the State uses these powers to mastermind and execute wrongful and cruel acts, like enforced or involuntary disappearance that deprive the people of the dignity that makes them human, then it must be held liable both criminally and civilly.

The Families of Victims of Involuntary Disappearance (FIND) has assisted the families of the disappeared file one administrative and 14 criminal cases against perpetrators of enforced disappearance. However, in the absence of a law penalizing enforced disappearance, these cases are lodged as kidnapping, murder or serious illegal detention. These are common crimes which when committed by agents of the State who conceal the whereabouts of the disappeared constitute an act of enforced disappearance. Moreover, the disappeared victims are not common or ordinary citizens. They are those who are, or perceived to be, involved in political activities that are critical of the government and/or the prevailing socio-economic system.

Needless to stress, the victims of enforced disappearance are not only the disappeared but their families and other persons as well who suffer direct harm as a result of the disappearance. Considering that enforced disappearances are generally continuing offenses, the victims’ families are unable to find closure. Steadfastly searching for justice, they now turn to this august body for the long overdue enactment of a special law penalizing enforced disappearance as a distinct crime separate from kidnapping, murder and arbitrary detention.

In 1990, Rep. Eduardo Nonato Joson, Jr. introduced a bill penalizing summary executions and unexplained disappearances. A similar measure was filed in 1995 by then Rep. Daisy Avance-Fuentes. But the first comprehensive anti-disappearance bill was filed in 1996 by the late Rep. Bonifacio Gillego. Variations of the latter bill were introduced in the succeeding Congresses.

In the last Congress, the House of Representatives approved on third and final reading House Bill No. 4959 otherwise known as the “Anti-Enforced or Involuntary Disappearance Act of 2006”. The bill of which this Representation was one of the principal authors was transmitted to and received by the Senate on 31 May 2006. Lamentably, the Senate let it languish unacted upon until the 13th Congress adjourned.

Mr. Speaker, Honorable colleagues, there are two bills that seek to penalize enforced disappearance pending before the present House: House Bill No. 326 authored by this Representation and House Bill No. 1745 introduced by the distinguished Majority Leader Arthur Defensor.

With the government's heightened anti-terrorist operations, a law that does not only impose penalties on the perpetrators of enforced or involuntary disappearance but also provides greater protection from this atrocious transgression of human rights becomes even more crucial.

Enforced disappearance is state-sanctioned terrorism. The State resorts to involuntary disappearance to stifle dissent and to silence political activists. It is a global phenomenon. In the Philippines, FIND has already documented 1,767 out of the 2,041 reported victims of enforced disappearance as of June 2007. Of these 1,166 are still missing, 412 have surfaced alive and 253 found dead. Eight hundred fifty-five (855) involuntarily disappeared during the Marcos regime, 821 under the Aquino administration, 87 under Ramos, 58 under Estrada and 220 under the Macapagal-Arroyo dispensation.

It is undeniable that this vile crime still persists and its perpetrators continue to act with brazen audacity. Not a single case has been resolved. No perpetrator has been punished. No victim or his/her family has been indemnified.

Justice has been elusive to the victims and their families. An oft-repeated question asked by family members of victims of enforced disappearance in their quest for justice is: “until when shall we wait?” Insofar as the enactment of an anti-disappearance law is concerned, the answer obviously lies in our hands. Let us not lengthen their torment. Let us not heighten their pain. Let us not prolong injustice. Let us not make them wait in vain.

This Representation earnestly invites his fellow legislators to mark the International Day of the Disappeared tomorrow with a strong resolve to ensure that an anti-disappearance law will be among the first legislation that the current Congress will enact to help put an end to enforced disappearances and resultant impunity.