LEGAZPI CITY – Relatives of a former Bayan Muna coordinator in Albay, who was abducted by suspected military men at about 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, will file a writ of amparo if the victim fails to surface in two days.
Human rights group Karapatan in Bicol identified the victim as Noel Samar, 33, married with three children.
Vince Casilihan, a staff member of Karapatan-Bicol, said Samar was an active leader of the League of Filipino Students and became a Bayan Muna coordinator for Albay in 2001.
Samar was abducted by eight to nine armed men while tending his retail store in Barangay Layon, Ligao City.
The victim’s wife, Rogelyn, 30, quoted eyewitnesses as saying that two men with closely cropped hair were seen buying soft drinks from her husband.
“Our neighbors said that when my husband was about to give them the soft drinks he was grabbed and hit in the head with a .45-cal. gun,” Rogelyn said.
She added that when her husband lost consciousness, he was handcuffed and carried to an L-300 white Mitsubishi van that quickly fled while being followed by two motorcycles.
The eyewitnesses noted that the L-300 van bore the license plate number DTB-165, Casilihan said, but the Ligao City police found that the number was not registered with the Land Transportation Office.
“Our family thinks this has something to do with my husband’s militant affiliations, though he never told me of any threats to his life,” Rogelyn said.
She said she was at work when the abduction happened and when she got home police were already in the area investigating.
She said she went to the military command based in Barangay Tula-Tula in Ligao City to inform its officials of the abduction.
“The military neither affirmed nor denied they had something to do with my husband’s abduction,” Rogelyn said in a mobile phone interview.
However, she said, the family had decided to be vocal in accusing the military.
“Based on our analysis, the way my husband was abducted is the same way other activists are being abducted by alleged military units,” Rogelyn said.
Casilihan said Samar is the eighth militant leader abducted in the Bicol region since 2001.
