Man continues to grieve over activist son killed in 2006

BULAN, Sorsogon—Years after activist Rei Mon Guran was shot dead on July 31, 2006, inside a bus in this seaport town 65 kilometers from Sorsogon City, his father Arnel, 54, is still crying over him—at work, at meal time and almost every night.

“Those who are close to me say I should stop grieving over my son’s death. One year of grief, they tell me, is enough or I would lose my mind. But I will mourn for my son as long as I feel this pain,” Arnel told the Inquirer in tears.

“I am crying not because I am weak. I am crying because I am hurt.” Rei Mon, or Rambo to his friends, was 21 when he was shot at least four times at the terminal here right after he boarded a bus bound for Legazpi City.

His parents, who were sending him off that morning of 2006, had just turned their back to leave when their son was shot. And it was Arnel, a former soldier who left the military because of the low salary it offered, who picked up the shells of the slugs that killed his son.

Rei Mon was the spokesperson of the League of Filipino Students in Aquinas University in Legazpi City, where he was on his second year of studies in political science.

Justice for his murder remains elusive, and this adds to his father’s pains. “No case has been filed because no one has come up to pinpoint who killed my son. No witnesses have surfaced, perhaps out of fear of retribution,” said Arnel.

But he has accused the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) of orchestrating the murder. “Only they (AFP) are well-equipped and well-trained to do that.”

Local military and police officials have repeatedly denied involvement in the murder.

“Days before Rei Mon died, he was jeered on the streets. Some would call him kasama (comrade) and rebel. Some even asked if the skateboard he was carrying was an M16 rifle.”

He said he had approached every government agency he could reach but he would always get the same answer: Without a witness, the case would not prosper.

He was losing hope that the government could give justice for the death of his son.

“This pains me because I and my wife have been dutiful government employees. And yet the government cannot do something for us. And if it were true that government people had been involved in the killing of my son, nothing could be more painful.”

His wife Maridesa is a public elementary schoolteacher, while he is a real property tax collector of the municipal government here.

While despairing that the government could not help, they have turned to the heavens to seek for justice.

“I and the rest of my family are Protestants but we have offered Masses for our son so God would give him justice. I have also learned to pray the rosary. I have sent request for prayers to Catholic parishes as far as Cagayan de Oro.”

“We have prayed whenever and wherever we could.”

He said he has been praying for God to take away the pain in his heart. “I feel the hurt most every time his death anniversary comes. I am hurt because he was never a problem child. In fact he brought joy to our family.”
He said he never felt that his son did something wrong.

“When he was alive, we would argue on things like joining pickets. Once, I told him there’s no need to join protest rallies on oil price hike because I could provide them money for fare. But he would always tell me that we should be thinking about the well-being of other people and not ours at all times.”

On weekends, he said, when he would prepare sumptuous meals just for his children (Rei Mon, the oldest of three siblings, included) to have generous servings, Rei Mon would always see to it that some of the food, which he would deem as excessive, would be given to poor neighbors and even passers-by before they eat.

“We would always argue on that. I would tell him that it’s all right to give but only the leftovers, but he would always retort that leftovers are for animals.”

In the end, he said, it was him who would get convinced by his son.

His son had his own way of thinking and reasoning.

“If my son were not killed we would have wanted to see him as a lawyer, which was his dream. He wanted to be a human rights lawyer.”

But he said he never discouraged his son from being an activist. “He was happy with it and I always support my children and let them be where they are happy. He (Rei Mon) respected me as his father so I respected him as my son. And that respect includes letting him find his own happiness, where he could find it.”

In tears, he appealed to whoever killed his son to surface. “I can forgive you, I can even kiss you. Just let me know why you killed my son.”

He said he was ready to forgive his son’s killer if he or she could convince him that his son deserved to die.

“Even criminals did not deserve that fate. My son was only speaking out what he thought was right. He was just defending the rights of students. He should have not been treated that way.”

Rei Mon was the 716th victim of political killings under the administration of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, according to rights group British Columbia for Human Rights in the Philippines.

He was killed just four months after 20-year-old journalism student Cris Hugo, a member of the League of Filipino Students in Bicol University was also shot dead not far from the state university campus in Daraga, Albay, on March 20.

Both killings remain unresolved due to lack of witnesses.