5 years on, kin call for release of UP students

Today (June 26), five years since the disappearance of University of the Philippines (UP) students Karen Empeño and Sherlyn Cadapan, friends and family continue to call for their release from military custody.

To highlight the call, human rights groups UP Kilos Na, Karapatan and Desaparecidos will hold a “run against torture” and “for justice” today on the UP Diliman campus.

Empeño, Cadapan and farmer Manuel Merino were allegedly abducted by military agents in Hagonoy, Bulacan, on June 26, 2006.  The military has denied having the activists in its custody, but the Supreme Court recently ordered retired Army Major General Jovito Palparan Jr. and five other military men to immediately release the three, who remain missing.

“We call on law enforcement agencies to expedite the resolution of these cases,” UP president Alfredo Pascual said in a press conference at the UP College of Mass Communications on Thursday, adding that “five years is too long for a case to remain unsolved in a democratic country.”

He added that UP was also closely monitoring the case of UP-Diliman Film student Maricon Montajes, who continues to be incarcerated in the Batangas provincial jail after she was arrested in Taysan along with Ronilo Baes, 19, and Anakbayan community organizer Romiel Canete, 22, on June 6, 2010.

Legal assistance

They were arrested allegedly by the Philippine Air Force. Charges of frustrated murder and homicide, illegal possession of firearms and violation of the election gun ban have been filed against the three.

Pascual assured the UP community that his office was willing to extend legal assistance to students whose “rights are under threat.”

On Thursday, youth groups Student Christian Movement of the Philippines, College Editors Guild of the Philippines, Karatula, UP Sining at Lipunan organization, League of Filipino Students and  National Union of Students in the Philippines also called for the release of activist, writer and UP alumnus Erickson Acosta.

Acosta remains jailed in Samar after being arrested on February 13 as a suspected rebel on charges of illegal possession of explosives.

Of more than 300 political prisoners in the country, 59 belong to the youth sector, said Anakbayan national chair Vencer Crisostomo. Crisostomo noted that there have been “no changes” in the human rights situation in the country under President Aquino’s administration.

“We are calling for a general, unconditional, omnibus amnesty for all political prisoners,” akin to that granted by former President Corazon Aquino when she assumed office, said Angie Ipong, secretary general of the Samahan ng mga Ex-Detainee laban sa Detensyon at Aresto.

Ipong, a National Democratic Front consultant, was released in February of this year after she was detained for six years in Mindanao on rebellion, murder and arson charges. The charges have been dismissed.