The daughter of peasant martyr Eddie Gumanoy is recovering from a fractured left arm resulting from a gunshot wound at the V. Luna Hospital in Quezon City. Military officials claimed that Rose Ann Gumanoy is part of an NPA unit they had a firefight with last April 17.
By Dabet Castañeda
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
Vol. VIII No. 11, April 20-26, 2008
Bulatlat
Rose Ann Gumanoy, 21, is recovering from a fractured left arm after being shot at by Army troops belonging to the 202nd Brigade composed of the 16th Infantry Battalion under Lt. Col. Generoso Bolina. She is now confined at the V. Luna Hospital in Quezon City.
In a statement to the media on Thursday, April 17, the Army said Gumanoy belonged to a group of New People’s Army guerillas it encountered at around 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 15, at Sitio Macalla, Barangay Pagsangahan, Gen. Nakar in Quezon province.
Martyr’s daughter
Rose Ann is the daughter of martyr Eddie Gumanoy who, in April 2003, was abducted and killed allegedly by soldiers under the 204th IB in Oriental Mindoro, an island-province south of Manila.
The younger Gumanoy is the eldest of seven children, her mother Maria Gumanoy said in an interview.
Rose Ann was only able to finish first year high school. After her father’s tragic death, she volunteered as organizer for the peasant group KASAMA-Timog Katagalugan where her father was the former chair.
In January 2006, Maria said her daughter left for Pampanga to find a job. It was to her surprise to find Rose Ann wounded in a military hospital.
At the hospital
Maria said she came to know about what happened to Rose Ann in the hands of the military from a newspaper report on April 17. Together with her lawyer, Rey Cortez, and human rights workers from Karapatan (Alliance for the Advancement of Peoples’ Rights), Maria went to V. Luna Hospital at around 8 p.m. of the same day.
Soldiers manning the gates of V. Luna did not allow Maria to visit her daughter inside the hospital. Maria waited for an hour-and-a-half before military doctors could meet her at the hospital gate.
A military doctor from Quezon, who identified himself only as Dr. Leonen, said he had just performed surgery on Rose Ann. The surgery started at 8:40 p.m. Leonen said the younger Gumanoy suffered from a type three-open fracture in the left arm near the elbow.
Leonen said Rose Ann was transferred to the V. Luna Hospital because the Tanay provincial hospital, the nearest hospital to the area where Rose Ann suffered a gunshot wound had no capability of performing the surgery.
Rose Ann’s attending physician, who only identified herself as Dr.Tolentino, said they had to transfer at least five bags of blood (Type A) to the patient before the surgery was performed.
Although Leonen assured that Rose Ann was given anti-tetanus and that her wound was thoroughly cleansed, he said there was no assurance that the wound would not get infected. He added that the medical management accorded to the patient was only “temporary.”
Another attending physician, Lt. Juvy dela Fuente-Cabading, said Rose Ann is now facing rebellion charges at the Regional Trial Court of Infanta, Quezon, Branch 65.
Other casualties
Tolentino confirmed that mother and child Merie Carcer, 50, and Christine Carcer, 7, are also confined at the V. Luna Hospital. The soldier-doctor said the younger Carcer suffered a gunshot wound in the left ankle and was operated on the same day.
Tolentino also said another civilian, identified only as Monina, is confined at a public hospital in Tanay.
The Army, in its report to the media, said a soldier was killed and another was injured during the firefight with the NPA guerillas. On the other hand, it reported that three alleged guerillas have been killed: 13-year-old Monica Carcer, 26-year-old Eliza Pera who was four months pregnant, and an unidentified man. (Bulatlat.com)
