This story
was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly
newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com).
Vol. VI, No. 21, July 4, 2006
Abductions: A Shift from
Killings – Youth Groups BY
JHONG DELA CRUZ Militant youth groups note
that forced disappearances have replaced killings as tactic on
counter-insurgency as shown by the spate of abductions mostly in Central Luzon. Youth groups belonging to
Youth Dare (Youth Demanding Arroyo’s Removal) cited the case of Karen Empeño and
Sherlyn Cadapan who remain missing eight days after they were abducted in
Hagonoy town in Bulacan province on June 26. Dion Carlo Cerrafon, chair
of the Student Christian Movement of the Philippines (SCMP) said, “from
extra-judicial killings, perpetrators believed to be agents of the military has
shifted to a more terrifying move to silence government critics.” Empeño, 23 and Cadapan, 25,
were abducted with a local farmer Manuel Merino, 56, in San Miguel village,
Hagonoy town, Bulacan by armed men suspected to be soldiers of the 71st
Infantry Battalion. Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan, chief of the 7th
Infantry Division in Central Luzon claimed the three were members of the New
People’s Army (NPA). Empeño, a graduating
Sociology student of the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy and a member
of the League of Filipino Students, has been conducting a research on the
farmer’s plight in Hagonoy to finish her thesis this semester. Cadapan, a
triathlete from the College of Human Kinetics, is two-month pregnant at the time
of their abduction. SCMP noted at least 10
individuals who went missing last week. There have been 178 cases of abductions
since Arroyo was installed in 2001, noted SCMP. The youth groups have
launched a signature drive in the University of the Philippines in support of
their calls for the military to surface the two students. Eleanor de Guzman, chair of
Anakbayan, cringed at Palparan’s pronouncement confirming that he has instructed
“saturation campaign” in known NPA hotbeds in Bulacan. Vencer Crisostomo of the
League of Filipino Students (LFS) said, “It’s an act of cowardice for the army
troops against legal and unarmed civilians…forced disappearances is more painful
for the families who do not know what had happened to their loved ones.” The groups also declared
the youth’s “all out war” against the Arroyo government, who has been besieged
since the announcement of an intensified anti-insurgency drive, following the
release of P1 billion to finish off the Communist Party of the Philippines and
armed wing NPA in two years. The groups will today light
candles along Katipunan Avenue, Taft Avenue and E. Rodriguez to denounce the
abductions. “Palparan has turned
Mindoro into a killing field, Samar into ghost town…now he is wreaking havoc in
Bulacan and Central Luzon. If there is someone that the townsfolk would wish
were gone, it’s Palparan and his army and not Karen and Sherlyn,” de Guzman
said. The abductions increased
after government pronouncements of the transfer of 1,500 military troops from
Mindanao to Luzon and the recall of 3,000 troops from security detail for
deployment to critical areas. Bulatlat © 2006 Bulatlat
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Posted 1:35 p.m. July 4, 2006