The Straits Times, March 7, 2007
By Alastair McIndoe, Philippines Correspondent
MANILA - EVERY day, Mrs Linda Cadapan prays that her missing daughter has not shared the fate of hundreds of murdered political activists in the Philippines.
She holds up an enlarged identity-card photograph of Sherlyn, taken when her daughter was in university six years ago. It shows a confident young woman with a ready smile.
Rights groups believe 30-year-old Sherlyn Cadapan and another young woman working for a peasant organisation were abducted last June by the military and 'disappeared' in a dirty war against the left.
Eyewitnesses saw Sherlyn and Karen Empeno taken by several men from a house in the village of Hagonoy in Bulacan province a few hours before dawn and forced into a car that drove off in the direction of a nearby army camp.
According to Karapatan, a left-wing group monitoring political killings, the two were spotted a few weeks later in Fort Magsaysay, a military training camp in Nueva Ercija in central Luzon, by a detainee who was later released.
Since then, the trail has gone cold.
The Cadapans have petitioned the courts to order the military to produce Sherlyn. The military has denied holding the two women.
It is now nine months since their disappearance. Mrs Cadapan hangs to the hope that Sherlyn is still alive: 'We pray we will get her back.'
Lawyer Rex Fernandez, representing the family, says: 'After one year, I will no longer be hopeful.'
International condemnation over a seemingly unstoppable wave of killings and disappearances of activists with legal left-wing organisations is badly tainting the Philippines' reputation for generally respecting human rights.
The killings have risen sharply over the past two years, a period that has seen the military intensify its campaign to uproot a long-running communist insurgency.
They now threaten to undermine President Gloria Arroyo's efforts to flag her country's promising economic gains to the international investment community.
Concern over the killings voiced by the US, European Union and Japan has galvanised the administration into trying to unmask the assassins to stop further attacks.
That offers some hope they may subside.
The preliminary findings of two recent investigations - one by a special rapporteur on extra-judicial killings to the United Nations (UN), the other by a commission appointed by President Arroyo herself - implicate the armed forces.
The Melo Commission, headed by a retired Supreme Court judge, came to the disturbing conclusion that enough evidence points to 'elements and personalities' in the military allowing and even encouraging killings.
No evidence was found of a sanctioned policy by the military or the administration for liquidating activists. Both investigations are clear on that.
Political killings are nothing new in the Philippines.
In under-developed hinterlands far from Manila, landowners with private armies, communist insurgents, civilian militias, labour organisers and the military have been an explosive mix for decades. Disputes are often settled by the gun.
'Salvagings', as extra-judicial killings are called here, reached a peak during the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos during the 1970s and 1980s.
Leftists liken President Arroyo's regime to that of Marcos, but their case is unconvincing.
Even so, political activists are dying in increasing numbers during her watch.
According to Karapatan, there have been 381 killings of activists and 194 disappearances since President Arroyo came to power in 2001 - with 258 killings occurring in the last two years alone.
Task Force Usig, a police unit set up to investigate these murders, put the toll at 111 late last year. A Manila newspaper records 274 killings.
The main targets are activists in communities working on land reform and social justice issues, and left-wing parties like Bayan Muna.
The security establishment suspects some are front organisations for the communist rebels of the New People's Army (NPA). Activists say that has dangerously tarred them as 'enemies of the state'.
The military has tirelessly denied that it is behind the killings in numerous briefings to the media and in testimony to investigating panels.
General Hermogenes Esperon, armed forces chief-of-staff, has acknowledged that some soldiers have been involved in extra-judicial killings, but the high command condemned these acts.
Commanders are justifiably piqued that NPA attacks receive a fraction of the attention. The military blames the NPA for 1,227 killings since 2001: 843 civilians and 384 armed forces personnel.
But it has yet to convincingly argue that the political killings are being carried out by the militant left to purge their ranks of suspected informers, as it did in the late 1980s.
To strengthen investigations, 100 special courts are being set up to swiftly decide on cases of unlawful killings of political activists. The witness protection programme will also be overhauled.
As Professor Philip Alston, the UN's rapporteur, observed: 'The present message is that if you want to preserve your life expectancy, don't act as a witness in a criminal prosecution for killing. Witnesses are systematically intimidated and harassed.'
The US, meanwhile, wants its close ally in the war on terror to fortify the institutions investigating the killings - and has offered to help.
Of the 111 cases acknowledged by the police, less then 40 have been forwarded to the prosecutor's office for further investigation.
Some believe that as Commander-in-Chief of the 120,000-strong armed forces, President Arroyo needs to send a forceful message to the military brass that summary executions by rogue soldiers will not be tolerated.
'President Arroyo has the clout to order a systematic investigation into the military, but I don't see the political will,' says Dr Constancio Claver, a member of Bayan Muna.
Last July, he survived a roadside ambush in which his wife Alice, a member of the Cordillera Peoples' Alliance, died from head injuries. Dr Claver, who is in hiding, is convinced the gunmen were from the security forces.
The testimonies of survivors of attacks and close relatives of victims are often compelling, but evidence directly linking members of the security forces to killings remains elusive.
The Melo Commission found only circumstantial evidence - and its report, contrary to initial scepticism in some quarters, was no whitewash.
'In many cases, only the military has the motive,' says Mrs Dee Ayroso of the Families of the Disappeared for Justice. 'They have been experts at this since the time of Marcos; the abductions are cleanly done.'
Her husband Honorio, also a member of Bayan Muna, was abducted five years ago.
'I am not optimistic that he will be coming home.'
By Alastair McIndoe, Philippines Correspondent
MANILA - EVERY day, Mrs Linda Cadapan prays that her missing daughter has not shared the fate of hundreds of murdered political activists in the Philippines.She holds up an enlarged identity-card photograph of Sherlyn, taken when her daughter was in university six years ago. It shows a confident young woman with a ready smile.
Rights groups believe 30-year-old Sherlyn Cadapan and another young woman working for a peasant organisation were abducted last June by the military and 'disappeared' in a dirty war against the left.
Eyewitnesses saw Sherlyn and Karen Empeno taken by several men from a house in the village of Hagonoy in Bulacan province a few hours before dawn and forced into a car that drove off in the direction of a nearby army camp.
According to Karapatan, a left-wing group monitoring political killings, the two were spotted a few weeks later in Fort Magsaysay, a military training camp in Nueva Ercija in central Luzon, by a detainee who was later released.
Since then, the trail has gone cold.
The Cadapans have petitioned the courts to order the military to produce Sherlyn. The military has denied holding the two women.
It is now nine months since their disappearance. Mrs Cadapan hangs to the hope that Sherlyn is still alive: 'We pray we will get her back.'
Lawyer Rex Fernandez, representing the family, says: 'After one year, I will no longer be hopeful.'
International condemnation over a seemingly unstoppable wave of killings and disappearances of activists with legal left-wing organisations is badly tainting the Philippines' reputation for generally respecting human rights.
The killings have risen sharply over the past two years, a period that has seen the military intensify its campaign to uproot a long-running communist insurgency.
They now threaten to undermine President Gloria Arroyo's efforts to flag her country's promising economic gains to the international investment community.
Concern over the killings voiced by the US, European Union and Japan has galvanised the administration into trying to unmask the assassins to stop further attacks.
That offers some hope they may subside.
The preliminary findings of two recent investigations - one by a special rapporteur on extra-judicial killings to the United Nations (UN), the other by a commission appointed by President Arroyo herself - implicate the armed forces.
The Melo Commission, headed by a retired Supreme Court judge, came to the disturbing conclusion that enough evidence points to 'elements and personalities' in the military allowing and even encouraging killings.
No evidence was found of a sanctioned policy by the military or the administration for liquidating activists. Both investigations are clear on that.
Political killings are nothing new in the Philippines.
In under-developed hinterlands far from Manila, landowners with private armies, communist insurgents, civilian militias, labour organisers and the military have been an explosive mix for decades. Disputes are often settled by the gun.
'Salvagings', as extra-judicial killings are called here, reached a peak during the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos during the 1970s and 1980s.
Leftists liken President Arroyo's regime to that of Marcos, but their case is unconvincing.
Even so, political activists are dying in increasing numbers during her watch.
According to Karapatan, there have been 381 killings of activists and 194 disappearances since President Arroyo came to power in 2001 - with 258 killings occurring in the last two years alone.
Task Force Usig, a police unit set up to investigate these murders, put the toll at 111 late last year. A Manila newspaper records 274 killings.
The main targets are activists in communities working on land reform and social justice issues, and left-wing parties like Bayan Muna.
The security establishment suspects some are front organisations for the communist rebels of the New People's Army (NPA). Activists say that has dangerously tarred them as 'enemies of the state'.
The military has tirelessly denied that it is behind the killings in numerous briefings to the media and in testimony to investigating panels.
General Hermogenes Esperon, armed forces chief-of-staff, has acknowledged that some soldiers have been involved in extra-judicial killings, but the high command condemned these acts.
Commanders are justifiably piqued that NPA attacks receive a fraction of the attention. The military blames the NPA for 1,227 killings since 2001: 843 civilians and 384 armed forces personnel.
But it has yet to convincingly argue that the political killings are being carried out by the militant left to purge their ranks of suspected informers, as it did in the late 1980s.
To strengthen investigations, 100 special courts are being set up to swiftly decide on cases of unlawful killings of political activists. The witness protection programme will also be overhauled.
As Professor Philip Alston, the UN's rapporteur, observed: 'The present message is that if you want to preserve your life expectancy, don't act as a witness in a criminal prosecution for killing. Witnesses are systematically intimidated and harassed.'
The US, meanwhile, wants its close ally in the war on terror to fortify the institutions investigating the killings - and has offered to help.
Of the 111 cases acknowledged by the police, less then 40 have been forwarded to the prosecutor's office for further investigation.
Some believe that as Commander-in-Chief of the 120,000-strong armed forces, President Arroyo needs to send a forceful message to the military brass that summary executions by rogue soldiers will not be tolerated.
'President Arroyo has the clout to order a systematic investigation into the military, but I don't see the political will,' says Dr Constancio Claver, a member of Bayan Muna.
Last July, he survived a roadside ambush in which his wife Alice, a member of the Cordillera Peoples' Alliance, died from head injuries. Dr Claver, who is in hiding, is convinced the gunmen were from the security forces.
The testimonies of survivors of attacks and close relatives of victims are often compelling, but evidence directly linking members of the security forces to killings remains elusive.
The Melo Commission found only circumstantial evidence - and its report, contrary to initial scepticism in some quarters, was no whitewash.
'In many cases, only the military has the motive,' says Mrs Dee Ayroso of the Families of the Disappeared for Justice. 'They have been experts at this since the time of Marcos; the abductions are cleanly done.'
Her husband Honorio, also a member of Bayan Muna, was abducted five years ago.
'I am not optimistic that he will be coming home.'
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