Data
from Karapatan (Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights) show that
there have been 791 victims of extra-judicial killings from January 2001 –
when Arroyo was catapulted to power through a popular uprising – to
November 2006. At least 340 of the victims are with known political
affiliations. Of the 791, 58 are children, among them Mylene and Raymond
Golloso.
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WARNING: These photographs contain graphic images |
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Based on reports from human rights groups and the media, Mylene was
cooking minatamis with her eldest sister Melody who was then 17
years old. Meanwhile, brothers Raymond and Resty were playing outside the
house a few minutes before 3 p.m. on May 7, 2004.
Melody was getting a glass when they heard gunshots. Mylene rushed towards
Melody and they called out to her brothers to get inside.
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Melody told her three siblings to hide in their parents' room. Mylene and
Raymond sat on the bed while Resty stayed by the door, peeping out. They
could not see anyone outside the house. They then heard two more gunshots.
When
Resty looked back at his siblings, Raymond was wounded and had blood
gushing from his head. He was almost dead and Resty was frantically trying
to stop the bleeding. When he turned to Mylene, the left part of her face
had been shattered and she was calling out to their mother.
Melody and Resty ran as fast as they could toward the nearest relative's
house, that of Vilma Gracilla, who lived almost 100 meters away from their
place. However, the two children took several detours and negotiated
slopes, so the total distance they traveled was about 1.5 kilometers.
As
they were coming down from the house, they heard someone say, “Pasukin
natin ang bahay, baka may buhay pa” (Let's get inside the house, there
might be others still alive). They had run a considerable distance when
they heard another volley of shots and then a single loud shot.
Meanwhile, based on the account of Adelia Golloso (mother of the slain
children), she had gone out at around 2:35 p.m. that day. She saw soldiers
at the baranggay hall and at the house of Baranggay Captain Eduardo Adamos.
She recognized one of them as Cesar Loares, a CAFGU member from Baranggay
Quirino, Bulan.
She
stopped at a friend's house to take a rest. About 10 minutes later, she
heard gunshots and ran to her house, hearing a volley of shots as she ran.
The gunshots stopped for a few seconds, and then she heard two more shots.
From a distance, she saw her house and noticed there were soldiers there.
One of them saw her and asked her who she was.
“Ako
po ang nagmamay-ari ng bahay na 'yan! Ang mga anak ko nasa loob ng bahay!”
(I own that house! My children are inside!), she answered.
The
soldier told her to take a different route, but she insisted on going what
she believed the easier way and ran straight to her house. She saw Mylene
and Raymond slumped in the bedroom, with Raymond's head resting on
Mylene's stomach. Both were bleeding. Mylene was able to open her eyes and
call her. She cried for help from the soldiers, but no one came to the
rescue, she said.
“Sabi nila, NPA ang pumatay sa mga anak ko”
(They told me it was members of the New People's Army who killed my
children), Adelia said.
After the incident, the soldiers went to the house of barangay captain
Adamos and asked him to draft a certification saying they had an encounter
with the NPA and that the NPA guerrillas were the first to open fire and
it was they who killed her children. Adamos complied with the request and
signed the certification, a copy of which was received by Bulatlat.
Aside from Adamos, others who signed the document were baranggay
councilors Mila Sorio, Emily Martirez, Ricky Hernandez, Melchor Grajo,
Antonio Hernandez, Remedios Magillo and Nora Hallig.
The
incident was reported to the Bulan Municipal Police Station at 5 p.m. that
same day. “Suspects up to this writing still unknown,” read an excerpt
from the police blotter dated June 7, 2004, signed by SP02 Adolfo O.
Villaroya. “And motives not yet certain.”
In a
later written statement, however, Adamos and the councilors–
together with Baranggay Secretary Virginia Graydo, Sangguniang Kabataan
(Youth Council) Chair Edwin Martinez and Barangay Treasurer Ailyn
Maquiniana – identified which armed group was in their village that
fateful day. The statement was co-signed by 42 other Baranggay Recto
residents, including four tanods (watchmen).
''San Mayo 7, 2004, wara man kamisin iba na naimod digdi sa amo baranggay
na nagsulod na armado kundi yadto na siyam na Army. Ang nakilala mi lang
didto yadto na si Cesar Luares saro na CAFGU. Nag-abot sira sa Recto
mag-aala-una ng hapon. Mala ngani kay nagpaluto pa sin kaonon kay
nagkaraon pa sira kina Kapitan. Pagkatapos mga alas-tres na hapon
nagharale na pairaya san baryo an lakaw''
(On May 7, 2004, we saw no other armed group that came here except the
nine Army men. The only one we recognized among them was Cesar Luares, a
CAFGU member. They arrived at Recto a little before 1 p.m. They even went
and had someone cook food for them at the Captain’s house. Then, at about
3:00 p.m., they went off to the village on foot), the Baranggay Recto
officials and residents said in their statement.
The
death of Mylene and Raymond Golloso is among the cases to be heard March
next year by the PPT in Den Haag, The Netherlands where Arroyo is to be
tried for the following offenses:
-
Violations of
human rights, especially civil and political rights, with particular
focus on summary executions, disappearances, massacres, torture as well
as other vicious, brutal and systematic abuses and attacks on the basic
democratic rights of the people;
-
Violations of
human rights, especially economic, social and cultural rights of the
Filipino people through the imposition of “free market” globalization to
exploit them; transgression of their economic sovereignty and national
patrimony; various forms of economic plunder and attacks on their
economic rights; and the destruction of the environment; and
-
Violations of
the rights of the people to national self-determination and liberation
through the imposition of the U.S. war of terror; U.S. military
intervention; as well as the perpetration of crimes against humanity and
war crimes; misrepresentations of the people's right to national
liberation and self-determination as terrorism and the baseless
“terrorist” listing of individuals, organizations and other entities by
the U.S. and other governments.
The
PPT will be hearing the cases based on the suit filed by the Bagong
Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan or New Patriotic Alliance), Samahan ng mga
Ex-Detainee Laban sa Detensyon at para sa Amnestiya (SELDA or Society of
Ex-Detainees Against Detention and for Amnesty), Desaparecidos, an
organization of relatives of victims of forced disappearances; and
HUSTISYA, the organization of victims of the current administration's
human rights violations. Former UN ad litem judge Romeo Capulong is
the chief prosecutor and lawyers Pastores and Sato of the PILC will be
part of the prosecution panel in the PPT session. Bulatlat
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