CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Philippines -- The family of broadcaster and environmental activist and radio broadcaster Joey Estriber remain in the dark three years after four armed men, believed to be soldiers, abducted him in Baler, Aurora, in 2006.

"Neither Joey nor his abductors have sent word or signs that he is still alive," Estrber’s wife, Lourdes said by phone.

She and her five children, aged four to 10, observed the third anniversary of Estriber's disappearance by going to mass.

Estriber was typing a report in an Internet café near the Baler electric cooperative office at 7 p.m. on March 3, 2006 when the armed men seized him and forced him into a heavily tinted maroon Kia Besta van without a license plate.

Several weeks of searching by the Bataris, a Catholic church-supported nongovernmental organization for which he worked as a program officer, proved futile, his co-worker Josefina Marino said.

Troops from the Army's 48th Infantry Battalion were suspected to have taken Estriber after he stopped four soldiers from attending a Bataris-sponsored forum and campaign planning on Charter change on February 28, 2006.

Colonel Joselito Kakilala, commander of the 48th IB at the time, denied his men’s involvement in the abduction.

Estriber, secretary-general of the Multi-Sectoral Action Group of Aurora, led the campaign against large-scale mining and illegal logging in the province.

He was also the anchor of the radio program "Pag-usapan Natin" (Let’s Talk) over dzJO in Baler.

Two messages from Estriber's cell phone were received half an hour after he was abducted, the first saying, "Huwag kayong mag-alala, ok lang ako [Don't worry, I'm okay]," the second, "Nagtatago ako [I'm in hiding]."

The recipients of the messages, however, doubted these came from Estriber.

The abduction happened after armed men burned a building in the Bataris compound in Barangay (village) Buhangin in December 2005 and two other staff members were nearly abducted that same month.

In February 2006, a military officer said on the radio that members of nongovernmental organizations like Bataris were in an "order of battle."

Local and international media groups, such as the Committee to Protect Journalists, Journalists Without Borders, Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility, and National Union of Journalists of the Philippines have called on the government to surface Estriber, to no avail.

"I have not surrendered hopes that he is alive," Lourdes said. "I hope he will return. Old folks say the dead make their presence felt to the living. Joey has not given me signs."

She said no case had been filed because the Commission on Human Rights had told her it would be difficult to pursue a case when no witnesses were willing to testify.