Filipino-American Activist Freed, Two Companions Remain Missing

Published on May 25, 2009

Roxas has been reunited with her family. The fate of her two companions — Juanito Carabeo and John Edward Handoc – is unknown.

UPDATE: Melissa Roxas Moved to Philippines to Pursue Human-Rights Advocacy

MANILA – A Filipino-American activist abducted five days ago “was surfaced” Monday morning by her captors, according to the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan).

Melissa Roxas, 31, from Los Angeles, California, was freed at 6:30 a.m. Monday, said Bayan’s Renato Reyes Jr., but her two companions — Juanito Carabeo and John Edward Handoc – remain missing.

The three, who worked as health volunteers, were abducted by eight armed and hooded men in a village in Tarlac province on May 19, the latest in a string of so-called enforced disappearances in the Philippines targeting mainly activists.

“We are relieved that she has been freed but we are still worried about her two companions,” Reyes said. “The circumstances of her release are still unknown to us, and there is concern for her safety as well even if she has been released.”

Roxas has been reunited with her family and could not yet make any statements to the press, Reyes said. He added that Roxas’s medical condition, or whether she was harmed by her captors, is not yet known.

Roxas, Carabeo and Handoc were abducted in sitio Bagong Sikat, barangay Kapanikian, La Paz town, in Tarlac, a province just north of Mnaila.

Bayan, in a press statement on Sunday, said Karapatan, the human-rights group, had reported that the three were taken at gunpoint by eight men wearing bonnets over their heads. The men used two motorcycles and a Besta van without license plates – a common modus operandi in several other similar abductions in the Philippines.

Reyes said his group is “outraged that these abductions continue despite repeated condemnation here and abroad.”

This is the first time that a Filipino-American activist has fallen victim to what looks like another case of enforced disappearance, one of the forms of human-rights violations in the Philippines. Roxas is a member of Bayan-USA and the cultural group Habi Arts based in Los Angeles, California.

According to human-rights groups, more than 200 Filipinos have been victims of enforced disappearance since 2001, the year President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo took power. Aside from these abductions, the Arroyo regime and the military have been accused of murdering more than a thousand activists, peasants, workers, human-rights advocates and journalists in a campaign believed to be part of a dirty war against the communist insurgency.

Several investigations, most notably by the United Nations Human Rights Council, have pointed to the military as the main culprit in these atrocities. (Bulatlat.com)

2 Responses to “Filipino-American Activist Freed, Two Companions Remain Missing”

Monsi Says:
May 26th, 2009 at 10:56 am
Damayan Migrant Workers in New York is condeming this criminal activity of Philippine government against human rights activists. This a clear evidence that the freedom and democracy in our homeland is totally evaporated. We Filipinos should continue to organize and mobilize in one goal and destroy the oppresive evil US puppet of Gloria Arroyo's regime. Justice for all!
zaibatsu1941 Says:
May 26th, 2009 at 6:26 pm
We from the Migrante Dubai condemn the happening regarding another disappearances in the country even the regime is facing there and here a call to stop political killings still thy blatanly ignore the call for halting this scenario,even miss roxas is reunited with their family,her two companions still unknown up to now, we call the pilipino who loves and have the advocates in abroad to put pressure to the blood stained regimes of mrs.arroyo to stop and relaese of two remaining companion of ms. roxas to release it w/o even touching of the rights of this two people.