MANILA, Philippines—It was a journey back to a “dark place” in her life. But it was a journey which Filipino-American Melissa Roxas took to tell the world of the harrowing human rights violations in the Philippines.

In an emotional press conference in Los Angeles Sunday morning (Manila time), and shown simultaneously online, Roxas finally broke her silence and recounted to American and Philippine media her ordeal in the hands of what she believed to be her military torturers in La Paz, Tarlac in May.

Wearing a black blouse, Roxas told media in between sobs that she was abducted and then repeatedly beaten up inside a jail while being told she had “no rights in here.”

When one of her abductors told her they were only “instruments of God” to make rebels return to the fold of the government, “I told them that my God does not torture people.”

In the afternoon of May 19, Roxas and her two companions—Juanito Carabeo and John Edward Jandoc—were abducted by what they believed to be military agents, in the subvillage of Bagong Sikat, Kapanikian village, La Paz town, in Tarlac, around three hours north of Metro Manila.

After six days, Roxas was freed followed by Carabeo. Jandoc was reportedly released but has not surfaced.

Reading portions from her affidavit, which she previously submitted to the Supreme Court as a petition for a writ of amparo (protection from government agents), Roxas said she was constantly interrogated by men who addressed one of the interrogators as “sir” and was told she was abducted because she was a member of the New People’s Army.

“I told them I had rights and demanded a lawyer. I told them I was just a writer and a volunteer. They told me that even if a year would pass, I would never see a lawyer. That in there, I had no rights,” she said.

During the beating, the interrogators asked her if she was ready to die.

“They told me that before they killed people, they made them pee and shit from pain before they die and then they dragged me out of my cell,” Roxas said.

After more beatings, one of the torturers pulled two plastic bags over her head and strangled her.

“I started to suffocate, I could not breathe anymore, started to see white and thinking I was going to die, but then he released the hold,” she said.

Roxas said during her captivity, she heard sounds of gun firing in what seemed to be a firing range, and also sounds of construction and planes taking off.

“During my abduction and torture, I knew it was the military that had me. They kept telling me that I was a member of the NPA and made me sign some docs but I refused. I kept telling them I was a writer and health care volunteer.” The NPA or New People’s Army is the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines, which has been waging a 40-year-insurgency.

She said she decided to come out and relate her story because “I don’t want what happened to me happen to anyone else ever again. I want the world to know what happened because the Philippine government and military should not get away with what they did to me. They can’t get away with what they did to many people. Many families are still looking for their loved ones and many more still missing.”

She also asked the American and Filipino people “and all believers of truth and justice” to help her and other torture victims get justice.

“It has to end, the killings, enforced disappearances, the abductions, and torture,” she said, breaking into sobs again.

Roxas said she remained haunted by the nightmare of what happened to her.

“Talking about that is like going back to that dark place. But knowing I spoke the truth about what happened to me keeps … silence and fear from drowning me. And instead, I get to keep that bit of light inside of me,” she said of why she finally faced the media.

Arnedo Valera, Roxas’s lawyer in the US, said the Philippine government was trying to escape liability by saying his client’s story was “stage-managed.”

“Melissa was tortured. That is a fact,” he said.

He added that Roxas’s camp would seek damages before a US federal court against the Philippine government. Valera also said he and his client would file a complaint before the US State Department and the United Nations.

According to the local human rights group Karapatan, there have been 203 recorded victims of abduction, 1,010 victims of torture, 1,017 victims of extrajudicial killings, and 201 victims of enforced disappearances from 2001 to the present, or since President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo took power.

In 2007, UN Special Rapporteur for Extrajudicial Killings Philip Alston reported that the government was to blame for human rights violations in the country. In a recent follow-up report, Alston said the government failed to stem rampant human rights violations in the country.

In April 2009, the UN Committee Against Torture (UNCAT) also released a report detailing the use of torture by the Philippine military.