Despite positively identifying his daughter and bringing the necessary documents, state forces repeatedly denied Pepe Gayadan’s request to claim the remains of his daughter.
By JUSTIN UMALI
Bulatlat.com
CABUYAO CITY, Laguna – After over four days of back-and-forth pleas, soldiers of the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ 4th Infantry Battalion refused to allow a father to claim her daughter’s remains.
Pepe Gayadan is the father of Marife, an indigenous Mangyan-Iraya who was slain in an encounter between the AFP and the revolutionary New People’s Army (NPA) in Sitio Tinis-an, Barangay San Vicente, Roxas, Oriental Mindoro province, December 18. Marife was herself an NPA fighter.
However, despite positively identifying his daughter and bringing the necessary documents, state forces repeatedly denied Gayadan’s request to claim her remains.
“Although Tatay Pepe was able to identify that the remains in Dimatulac Funeral Homes were his daughter’s, both the Roxas police and 4th IBPA are making things hard on him for no discernible reason,” human rights watchdog Karapatan Southern Tagalog said in a statement. “They are miring Tatay Pepe through documents and bureaucracy, despite the law clearly stating what considerations and rights should be given to indigenous people.”
Gayadan and their paralegal team first arrived in Roxas on December 20. Roxas Police Chief P/Maj. Almerc Paul Pornia, however, insisted on “multiple bureaucratic processes” to process the remains, which the team fulfilled. Roxas PNP also gave a commitment to “swiftly process the remains.”
‘Coerced into burying’
Things changed on December 22 when Gayadan found out that his wife, Delia, was apparently claiming Marife’s remains. The Roxas police subsequently refused to accommodate Pepe and insisted on only talking with Delia, who was accompanied by elements of the 4th IBPA.
The family initially agreed that only Pepe would go and claim the remains owing to Delia’s “medical condition and ailing health.” He and Karapatan ST asserted that Delia was “coerced” by the military into cooperating “without any consideration to the family.”
The military has since claimed credit for “safely bringing the remains of Marife Gayadan … to their home in Paluan, Occidental Mindoro along with her parents and siblings.”
Additionally, the 4th IBPA stated that Pepe was “used by Karapatan Southern Tagalog to spread discord and lies.”
Karapatan ST slammed this statement, calling it a “dirty tactic” meant to “steal away the remains … and separate the family from the humanitarian team.”
“The fascist and murderous 4th IBPA are fascists at the highest level, pretending to be sincere in facing the family of the person they killed,” the group said. “All the while they were planning on how to hoodwink Marife Gayadan’s family into siding with them.”
The group compared the incident with a similar case that happened in Famy, Laguna province last November 28. There, soldiers similarly claimed and buried the remains of an NPA fighter, Susan “Ka Gemma” Ritual, similarly coercing other family members into cooperating.
Famy police also colluded with the military by separating Ritual’s kin from the paralegals before forcibly taking them to the PNP Region 4-A headquarters in Camp Vicente Lim, Calamba, Laguna. Karapatan ST stated that these tactics were meant to “cover up [the AFP’s] shoddy human rights record and disrespect to the rules of war.”
“This is signature 4th IBPA,” said Karapatan ST. “Heartless and soulless.” The group pointed out that the 4th IBPA has “done worse,” citing the case of slain Mangyan-Hanunoo youth Jay-el Maligday, who on April 7 was killed in a tokhang-style raid on their family home in Bulalacao, Oriental Mindoro.
Address the roots
Karapatan ST stated that the military’s insistence on coercing the Gayadan family into cooperation was to “discredit the reasons why Marife chose the path of armed struggle.”
“Marife’s family understands what pushed her to struggle for freedom and to achieve the rights of indigenous people for their ancestral land,” the group said in its statement. “So long as the state refuses to address the roots of armed conflict, the taking up of arms remains just and legitimate, wherever there is exploitation and injustice.”
Karapatan ST is calling for the 4th IBPA to be held accountable for the incident and for the “crimes against the people of Mindoro.” It is also calling out Roxas Mayor Leo Cusi for his “complicity and inaction” regarding Gayadan. (RVO)
