No Closure ‘til Justice is Achieved
By Joey Faustino 1
In July 1977, some 25 years ago, Rizalina Ilagan, Jessica Sales, Geraldo Faustino, Cristina Catalla, Ramon Jasul, Modesto Sison, Erwin de la Torre, Manny Salvacruz, Salvador Panganiban and Virgillo Silva were on their way to a meeting. Most of them were from the University of the Philippines in Los Bańos, Laguna in the Southern part of Luzon. They were a group of young activists. Teachers and students who courageously stood against formidable odds under the fascist dictatorship and were reportedly arrested by agents of the state at some place in Makati, Metro Manila before they ever got to the meeting.
By August 27 of that same year, the corps of Virgilio Silva and Salvador Panganiban were discovered in a ravine in Tagaytay. The two were obviously were victims of summary execution. Subsequently, after following a wild lead from a military press release regarding with an encounter with a group of insurgents, the searching family ended up in a public cemetery in Lucena, Quezon where they exhumed nine bodies in two unidentified shallow gravesites.
There they found Modesto Sison’s remains. The seven (7) others are still nowhere to be found to this day. These ten courageous young people, mostly in their early twenties at the time, compose the SOUTHERN TAGALOG 10 (ST 10).
My father used to say,
“Before the curtain falls on our early existence, we should at least know what happened to our disappeared kin.” This was before he passed away in October 2001 at the age of seventy two. Much of his liking, we never get to determine the whereabouts of my brother and six of his colleagues. When we laid our father to rest, I felt this profound grief, not for him alone, but for Gerry as well, to whom we could not even offer a simple burial simply because we have not found his remains after twenty years of trying.
At that point, I realized that, indeed, there had not been any closure at all for us in the family at the disappearance of my brother. I imagine it is the same for the other affected families. The realization brought out in me on erstwhile desire to be able to provide my sense of closure. Later I found out that some of Gerry’s longtime friends were thinking the same – putting a closure to that sudden and fateful loss. This brought about successive dialogues between and among friends and relatives of the other families.
Like my father, most of the parents of this group of desaparecidos had already passed away, one after the other, while agonizing without any final word about their beloved lost kin. Now, the second generation who until today remain beset by this unfortunate event, agreed to pursue the noble task of truth-finding.
On July 27, 2002, six of the families gathered together to reflect on this excruciating event in their lives for the first time ever in the whole of twenty-five years. Way back in 1977, most of us were present in the search efforts hardly talked to each other. It must have been because the military was watching our every move then.
In that meeting, relatives and friends alike were able to freely open up thoughts and memories of what transpired before and after they all disappeared. Each one had bits and pieces of information to share, something others would not know about. While the whole puzzle was not completed during that affair, the information openly revealed a clearer understanding of what had happened to our kin. Hence, while some of us had intended that particular affair to be “the closure”, we later found out that we had actually put a new beginning into our search for truth and justice – this time in a more cohesive manner.
A few friends in media covered the event and triggered a series of articles in the newspapers. Come September, in line with remembering what martial rule was all about, the families were again called on to tell this particular story of the Southern
Tagalog 10 in broadcast media. One of the media outfits even sponsored our trip back to the gravesites we dug up in Quezon in 1977 and talked with the public cemetery caretaker. With the advances made by the families in the public arena, the group decided to bring the matter to the higher authorities with the hope that present dispensation might help in unveiling the truth.
Fortunately, we were given the opportunity by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo last December to discuss the matter with her person and in a formal meeting with five of her Cabinet Secretaries (the Executive Secretary, Department of Justice, Department of Interior and Local Government, Department of National Defense, and the National Anti-Poverty Commission).
With the President, we raised five major points of concerns: 1) an admission that the government, indeed, made use of the practice of causing involuntary disappearances as in the case of the Southern Tagalog 10 and other similar numerous cases; 20 an investigation and declassification of the files related to the ST 10 case; 3) assistance in looking for the remains of the seven who are still missing after twenty-five years; 4) the development of a documentation center and the construction of a marker for the victims of involuntary disappearance; and, 5) a certification as an URGENT ADMINISTRATIVE MEASURE the bill seeking to penalize the practice of enforced or involuntary disappearance.
In response, the President noted that the administration sets as a priority bill the compensation of victims of human rights abuses during the Martial Law regime. By way of acknowledgement
, the administration already reconstituted the Presidential Human Rights Committee to ensure that respect for human rights is upheld by all government personnel.
The Secretary of the Department of National Defense committed to assist the families of the ST 10 and will submit to the Presidential Committee all pertinent documents, including the names of certain military personnel for purpose of tracing and that cases may be filled against those involved.
The President also committed to initiate, with the assistance of the National Historical Institute, the construction of a marker in memory of the victims. Lastly, she agreed to certify as urgent the bill on the Anti-Enforced Disappearance Act.
After the dialogue with the President, some of the relatives of the ST 10 were teary-eyed. So much had happened in the last few months since the families got together after twenty-five years of silence. While all of us relatives of the ST 10 had focused ourselves on this particular case, we all know that there are more than a thousand other families were victimized by similar cruel acts. With this in mind, we can only hope that the ST 10 families can catalyze and serve as an example to the other families to go on and not lose hope and to be strong in unity for the fight for truth for the desaparecidos which can only end when justice has been achieved.
