MANILA, Philippines—She was handcuffed, locked in a room, beaten and suffocated with a plastic bag for six days.

And in between, Filipino-American activist Melissa Roxas said in an affidavit, one of her interrogators told her “they were the instruments of God for rebels to return to the fold.”

Roxas, who had begun to think that death was near, replied: “The God I know does not condone torture and violence.”

Citing the affidavit submitted for Roxas’ petition for a writ of amparo, the militant group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) Tuesday accused the Armed Forces of being behind the activist’s abduction.

“There is credible basis to say that Melissa was abducted by the military as part of the government’s counterinsurgency operations,” Bayan secretary general Renato Reyes Jr. said in a statement.

“The abduction and torture were clear violations of her rights,” he said.

Her parents being members of Bayan’s US chapter, Roxas, 31, came to the Philippines for an “exposure program.” She was also planning a survey for a future medical mission in Tarlac.

Roxas was reported missing on May 19 and was returned on May 25 to the house where she was staying in La Paz, Tarlac.

She flew back to the United States on Monday, unable to face the media because of her traumatic experience, Reyes said.

Possibly Fort Magsaysay

In her affidavit, Roxas said some “15 men in civilian clothes armed with high-powered rifles and wearing ski masks or bonnets” barged into the house where she was staying and forced her inside a van.

Bayan said Roxas was apparently brought to a military camp in Nueva Ecija, possibly Fort Magsaysay, the headquarters of the 7th Infantry Division.

Roxas said she heard “construction activities—blowtorching, hammering and the construction bustle,” as well as “guns firing as though in a firing range and planes taking off and landing.”

“It was loud and I could also hear goats bleating,” she said.

Roxas said her interrogators kept forcing her to admit being a member of the New People’s Army, the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines. She said they told her that her parents were on the AFP “watch list.”

Bayan said that during her detention, Roxas was denied counsel and “subjected to torture via asphyxiation using a plastic bag and was hit repeatedly by her interrogators.”

In her affidavit, Roxas said she was interrogated for several days. At one point, she said, one of the interrogators asked her: “Are you ready to die?”

Addressing the man who described himself and his cohorts as “instruments of God,” Roxas said her God “does not torture people.”

She said the interrogator replied that those who tortured her “came from the SOG (Special Operations Group).”

Roxas said she made her interrogators believe she was “returning to the fold” just so they would stop torturing her.

Bayan said that in the early morning of May 25, Roxas was dropped off at her house, leaving her a mobile phone as well as the handcuffs they used on her.

One of her interrogators even called her on the phone after she was dropped off, Bayan also said.

“The Arroyo government must now address this issue. For the past few days, it has systematically attempted to cover up the incident,” Reyes said.

He said the Presidential Commission on Human Rights had dismissed the abduction as a “fabrication,” and Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro had never ordered an investigation.

Military ‘alarmed’

Asked to comment, the military said it had nothing to do with the purported abduction and torture of Roxas, and that an inquiry into the matter had been ordered.

Lt. Col. Romeo Brawner Jr., the AFP spokesperson, told the Philippine Daily Inquirer that Lt. Gen. Isagani Cachuela, the chief of the Northern Luzon Command, was “alarmed” by the disappearance of Roxas and two others.

He said Cachuela had ordered Maj. Gen. Ralph Villanueva, the chief of the 7th Infantry Division, to investigate the matter.

“He (Villanueva) said he had heard about the disappearance and he immediately ordered an investigation among his men. The results were negative,” Brawner said.

On the other hand, Brawner said, the military leadership was “puzzled” by the alleged abduction and disappearance of Roxas.

“We are wondering why she would be abducted then released within 24 hours and make no statement right after the incident,” Brawner said. With a report from Alcuin Papa