MANILA, Philippines ? The Filipino-American activist who returned from the United States to back her claim of having been abducted and tortured by state agents named her tormentors at a public hearing conducted Thursday by the Commission on Human Rights (CHR).

For five hours marked by a couple of short breaks, Melissa Roxas, 31, detailed a six-day ordeal in May, mentioning ?RC,? ?Dex,? ?Rose,? ?James,? and a man whom they referred to alternately as ?Boss? or ?Sir.?

Roxas, a member of the US chapter of the militant Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan-USA) and of the Los Angeles-based cultural group Habi Arts, occasionally took long pauses before answering a question, as if gathering courage. At times her voice cracked, or trailed off.

But she said with certainty that she would be able to tag Rose if they meet again.

She said that while she was blindfolded for the most part of her captivity, she had managed to ?cheat the blindfold? by peering through the cloth and was thus able to see the profiles of Rose and RC.

CHR Chair Leila de Lima told reporters after the hearing that the commission would conduct a closed-door session with Roxas on Friday for the purpose of drawing up sketches of the purported torturers.

?The names could possibly be only pseudonyms. They don?t even have last names. But we will ask Melissa to describe them to an artist so we can have a sketch,? De Lima said.

?Can we be friends??

Roxas told the commissioners that as though to add insult to injury, the man who called himself RC offered friendship to her and told her to forget the six days of fear and pain.

She recounted that the night before she was told she would be taken home, RC told her: ?Can we be friends? You?re going to forget this happened.?

Rose, on the other hand, identified herself as a member of a church group.

Roxas said the woman helped her take baths and stayed with her in her cell at night.

She said it was James who interrogated her. On another day, she said, he introduced himself using a different name but his ?very distinct Visayan accent? gave him away.

Boss or Sir, who interrogated her as well, was not called by any name, Roxas said.

The same was true of the man who punched and slapped her, slammed her head on the wall, and tried to suffocate her with plastic bags, she said. But she clearly remembered him as the one who asked her if she was ready to die.

?I said, ?Opo (Yes),?? Roxas said, her voice breaking.

Knowing her roots

This was what Roxas said at the hearing:

She had been living in the Philippines since April as part of an ?extended exposure program? as a member of Bayan-USA.

Her trips to the Philippines as an activist, including visits to Central Luzon provinces such as Pangasinan and Zambales, were part of ?knowing her roots? and being exposed to the ?actual realities? of the lives of Filipinos.

She took part in Bayan activities, such as the campaign to surface missing University of the Philippines students Karen Empeño and Sheryl Cadapan, studying the 2007 report of United Nations Rapporteur Philip Alston, working with the fisherfolk in Navotas, and joining various human rights forums.

On May 19, Roxas and local Bayan members Juanito Carabeo and John Edward Handoc were in a house owned by a ?Kuya Jesus? in La Paz, Tarlac, when armed men barged in and forced them out.

She was put in a van but she fought like mad and kept on shouting her name as her way to alert people on the abduction.

?They could not put tape on my mouth because I kept pulling it off. Inside the van, I was retching and throwing up,? Roxas said.

She said that it was inside the van that the armed men were able to cover her eyes with a cloth and cuff her.

She added that she was accused of being a communist, held incommunicado and beaten while blindfolded and cuffed, and then dropped off near her uncle?s home in Quezon City six days later.

Roxas said it was during the watch of RC, Dex and Rose that she saw Carabeo and Handoc one night shortly before she was freed.

She said her two companions appeared to have been also tortured, and that they tried to convince her to just admit to what their captors were insisting on?that she was a member of the communist New People?s Army.

She said she knew that Carabeo and Handoc were also terrified.

Souvenirs

Roxas said that after six days in captivity, she was driven to Quezon City accompanied by RC, Rose, Dex and two other men trailed by another vehicle carrying Boss.

She said the group could not find her uncle?s house and had to ask for directions.

When finally they found the street, they let her off the vehicle and Rose removed her blindfold. They also gave her a small bag.

Roxas said RC told her not to turn around and to count to 100 before walking to her uncle?s house.

She said she managed to count to 100 but could not move, afraid that they might seize her again.

?I heard RC call out to me to tell me to start walking,? she said.

When Roxas finally got inside her uncle?s house and opened the bag, she found a Bible, a copy of Gabriel Garcia Marquez?s ?Love in the Time of Cholera,? some cookies, a cell phone and a pair of handcuffs.

Souvenirs, she thought. Then the phone rang. It was RC.

?I didn?t know what to do. I was panicking. My cousin told me to turn [the phone] off,? Roxas said.

Her cousin shortly got rid of the bag and the phone. Roxas kept the books as well as the slippers and T-shirt that Rose had made her wear.

These items were presented to the commissioners, who said they would have the bar codes on the books? price tags checked to find out where these were purchased.

Writ of amparo

Shortly before returning to the United States early in June, Roxas filed a petition for a writ of amparo, which the Supreme Court turned over to the Court of Appeals for disposition.

The appellate court subsequently required Roxas to attend a hearing as a requirement for being granted protection.

In an affidavit, Roxas said that during her captivity, she heard ?construction activities? including ?blow-torching and hammering,? as well as ?guns firing as though in a firing range and planes taking off and landing.?

Bayan said it appeared that Roxas was held and tortured by members of the 7th Infantry Division at Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija.

Col. Leonido Bongcawil, the chief of staff of 7th Infantry Division commander Maj. Gen. Ralph Villanueva, vehemently denied that soldiers were involved in Roxas? abduction.

Bongcawil testified that there were 19 airstrips and airfields, as well as several firing ranges, in the whole of Nueva Ecija and not only in Fort Magsaysay, the Army division?s headquarters.

De Lima told reporters that she and a CHR team had gone to the military camp because Roxas? petition for a writ of amparo said ?there was strong reason to believe? that the place where she was held was in Fort Magsaysay.

?We should not single out Fort Magsaysay, but we?re not also ruling out Fort Magsaysay,? De Lima said.

Courage

The human rights group Karapatan praised Roxas for her testimony, saying her colleagues had also been released but had not come forward to tell their stories.

?We admire her courage to face the commission just to prove that what happened to her is really true,? said Karapatan secretary general Marie Enriquez.

?We hope this [hearing] will also open other cases of torture and disappearances in the Philippines,? she added.

Earlier, Gen. Victor Ibrado, the Armed Forces chief of staff, denied Roxas? claims and said he had ordered a separate military investigation.

Ibrado said he was told that ?there was no such incident that happened? in the Tarlac area. But he promised to present any soldier who may be identified as a suspect. With a report from Associated Press