Mother of ‘abducted’ sisters hale military to court
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 06:56:00 07/09/2008
MANILA, Philippines -- The mother of the allegedly kidnapped sisters, Rose Ann and Fatima Gumanoy, on Tuesday filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus with the Court of Appeals after military officials at Fort Bonifacio allegedly barred her from seeing and getting back her daughters.
“My daughters are being held at the Fort Bonifacio General Hospital for unexplained medical concerns. Their doctor said they cannot be discharged after a week,” Maria Gumanoy said in a statement.
Dorris Cuario, secretary general of the rights abuse group Karapatan, said the sisters were being detained after their abduction and were being forced to cooperate “if they wished their lives to be spared.”
“The AFP should give them back to their mother who is already claiming custody of them, especially Fatima, who is still a minor,” she said.
Maria Gumanoy said there was no reason for her daughters to stay that long in hospital.
“Rose Ann’s wound was healing and Fatima was in a good condition herself before they were abducted,” she said.
The mother said that she was shocked when she saw her daughter Fatima on July 6, lying in bed and completely immobile.
She insisted on being allowed to take Fatima to another hospital but the military refused.
Karapatan has maintained that the sisters, daughters of a slain peasant leader, did not seek “voluntary custody” but were taken forcibly by government agents.
When Karapatan first reported the abduction of Rose Anne and Fatima last week, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) accused it of staging a “propaganda stunt.”
The military said the girls sought “voluntary custody” after “running away from their Karapatan custodian.”
Karapatan spokesperson Ruth Cervantes accused the military of lying, saying the Intelligence Service of the AFP (ISAFP) initially claimed that the girls were not under military custody.
“But a few days later, they surfaced the girls, claiming that they sought voluntary custody,” she said.
The Gumanoy sisters were supposed to be meeting their mother at a mall in Alabang, Muntinlupa, last Thursday. But they failed to show up at the meeting place.
Rose Anne, a suspected member of the New People’s Army, was arrested last April 15 after she was wounded in an encounter with the Army’s 16th Infantry Battalion in General Nakar town in Quezon province.
She was confined at the AFP Medical Center for a few months until May 29 when she was allowed to post bail by the Infanta regional trial court, where she faces rebellion charges.
The military claimed that Rose Anne “ran away” from Karapatan, which they accuse of being a leftist front, and sought refuge among the soldiers she befriended when she was being treated at the military hospital.
“Why would they be scared of Karapatan? We are not the military. We do not have guns,” Cervantes said.
Rey Cortez, of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers who is representing the sisters, said Fatima was a minor and there was no basis for her arrest. Margaux C. Ortiz with a report from Jocelyn R. Uy
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