On May 25, Roxas was dropped off near the house of her uncle in Quezon City. Her captors left her with a SIM card and a cellphone as well as the handcuffs they had used on her. Roxas was also warned against talking to Karapatan.
One of her captors who introduced himself as RC also told her that they would be monitoring all her activities and something bad would happen if she would not cooperate. From the day of her release, RC was calling Roxas through the phone, warning her against taking any actions.
Pamugas, the physician, said Roxas sustained abrasions on wrists due to handcuffs. The medical certificate prepared by Pamugas also indicates abrasions on Roxas’s knees.
But more than the physical torture, Pamugas said Roxas would have to deal longer with the psychological toll of her ordeal. “She is suffering from acute stress disorder caused by the trauma,” Pamugas said during the press conference.
“She had difficulty falling into and maintaining sleep; was afraid to go out of her room and would not want to be alone. She had intrusive thoughts and was re-experiencing her trauma,” Pamugas said. The doctor also noted the victim’s “hyper-vigilance.” “She gets startled even by the slightest sound.”
Justice, Not Cover-Up
“The Arroyo government must answer for the abduction and torture of Melissa and her companions by punishing security forces who have perpetrated this dastardly act,” said Lorena Santos, deputy secretary-general of Desaparecidos, an organization of families of victims of so-called enforced disappearances.
Desaparecidos said there have been 201 victims of enforced disappearances since 2001 up to the first quarter of this yea. Abductions, torture and extrajudicial killings have been attributed to the counter-insurgency program of the government Oplan Bantay Laya (OBL-Operation Freedom Watch) of the military.
Respondents to the writ of amparo filed by Roxas include President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro, AFP Chief of Staff Victor Ibrado, Philippine National Police Director Gen. Jesus Versoza and Lt. Gen. Delfin Bangit, commanding general of the Philippine Army.
Bayan secretary-general Renato Reyes Jr. criticized the Presidential Human Rights Commission (PHRC), which is chaired by executive secretary Eduardo Ermita, for claiming that Karapatan and Bayan fabricated the abduction of Roxas, Carabeo and Jandoc.
In its statement last week, the PHRC said there were no reports to the local authorities about the abduction of the three. But Karapatan’s Enriquez furnished the media a copy of the La Paz police report on the incident. The police report was also attached to Roxas’s petition for writ of amparo.
Reyes slammed the apparent attempts of the Arroyo government to cover up the case of Roxas, Carabeo and Jandoc. “We will not allow this case to be just a part of the statistics of abduction and torture.
Continuing Campaign
Reyes said Roxas also reported the incident to the US Embassy in Manila. “The US government must seriously reconsider providing military aid to the Philippine government especially in the light of the abduction of an American citizen by state security agents here in the Philippines,” Reyes said.
Enriquez also said they will continue to search for Jandoc and press charges against their abductors. (Bulatlat.com)
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June 8th, 2009 at 10:48 am
Potah mga militar. Baguhin ang sistema.
June 8th, 2009 at 2:10 pm
Looks like the military is bored because thery have nothing to do. Maybe they should be sent into Iraq or other war zone to get some exercise.
June 16th, 2009 at 3:54 pm
The arroyo govt is responsible for all the suffering of the poor. She should stop talking about con-ass. She has more better priorities to act upon like supporting peoples struggles, supporting livelihood projects, supporting the teachers, workers, peasants, etc…She does not need to appoint those retired military personnels to do her job. I mean, the govt itself is already in and within the local zones, and we call them Sangguniang kabataan. If there is a fund, just allocate those funds in the local barrios or barrio zones. After all, arroyo herself is the leader of the country. That if anything goes wrong, she is accountable for it. With regards to the abduction of Roxas, it was very clear that they took her to camp fort magsaysay. It is so upsetting that the police do not investigate the army for all their judicial killings and ubductions. The local police should realize that they are more powerful than these army men. Now that the govt officials declared that they know any of this incident, and now that the local police admitted that there was actually an abduction incident, all concerned citizens should now ask these govt officials about their lying habits? They should be ashamed for lying and they should be dismissed from their jobs as so called public servants. For arroyo herself, she must fire all her lying cohorts and because she is one of them, she must also resign as a leader. She should resign because the Philippine setting is getting worst and not getting any better. Mellisa Roxas case is a unique tragedy because she stayed strong and stand for her rights and determined to stay alive. We all must admire Mellisa Roxas for her first hand brutal and violent exprerience about the atrocities of the phil army. We all must thank her for her pride and dignity for preserving her integrity despite the mental and physical torture that she received for speaking the truth. Mellisa truly is a saint and a hero for all of us. We must then pursue this arroyo govt and all her lying cohorts to answer the victims and their families for all the abductions and extra judicial killings in the entire philippines.
June 30th, 2009 at 6:10 am
[...] of the doctors who examined Roxas testified in court that the physical injuries were results of torture and not of anything [...]
August 12th, 2009 at 8:34 am
[...] along with Juanito Carabeo and John Edward Jandoc, was forcibly taken by armed men on May 19 in La Paz, Tarlac. Roxas was subjected to psychological and physical torture [...]