MISSING Relatives and various progressive groups gather at UP Diliman in Quezon City on Friday to launch the “Surface Steve Abua Network” to find the peasant activist who was reportedly abducted while on his way to a meeting in Bataan province on Nov. 6. —PHOTO COURTESY OF KARAPATAN
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO — Human rights group Karapatan on Friday aired suspicion that state forces were behind the disappearance of an organizer of militant group Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) who has been missing since Nov. 6.
In a statement, Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay condemned the reported abduction and disappearance of Steve Abua, 34, saying state forces were the “only possible perpetrators” of this “cowardly criminal act.”
Palabay made the remarks in time for the launch of the “Surface Steve Abua Network” at the University of the Philippines (UP) in Diliman, Quezon City.
Earlier this week, Abua’s wife, Johanna, told the Inquirer that her husband had left their home in Parañaque City and was headed to a seminar in Bataan province on Nov. 6 when the alleged abduction happened.
Johanna said Abua was last seen disembarking from a motorcycle between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. near a transport terminal in Barangay Sta. Cruz in Lubao town of Pampanga province but did not make it to his scheduled meeting in Dinalupihan town in Bataan.
According to Johanna, the abductors had contacted her thrice from Nov. 6 to Nov. 8 but had stopped calling her or sending her messages.
The abductors had described themselves as a “different government” group and were asking Johanna to convince Abua to admit he was a New People’s Army member.
Last communication
During her last communication with the abductors, Johanna said her husband was shown alive on a video call but he was blindfolded, tied up and gagged.
“Not only was Steve Abua abducted to threaten and harass his family, he was tortured for ‘information,’ according to none other than his abductors,” Palabay said.
She added that “they even threatened her (Johanna) that she would never see her husband again should anybody else know of his abduction. Clearly, no one else can be behind his abduction and disappearance but state forces.”
Karapatan reported documenting 18 cases of enforced disappearances linked to the government’s counterinsurgency campaign under the Duterte administration.
Motives
The KMP also demanded the defunding of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-Elcac) of its P28-billion budget in 2022 in the wake of Abua’s abduction.
“Only the NTF-Elcac and their cohorts have the motive to abduct Abua. [They] know where Steve Abua is,” Tanggol Magsasaka spokesperson Antonio Flores said.
Pampanga police chief Col. Robin Sarmiento said police units in the province were instructed to verify the incident but no reports were made about Abua’s abduction in Lubao or his being held in any jail in the locality.
“We also coordinated with Barangay Capt. Alan Paule of Sta. Cruz [in Lubao] who confirmed that there was no incident of abduction in the area,” Sarmiento said in a text message to the Inquirer.
Lt. Col. Eugene Garce, commander of the Philippine Army’s 70th Infantry Battalion based in Bulacan province, earlier said none of the units under his command in the region was holding Abua.