Farmer recounts abuse suffered by missing students

CITY OF MALOLOS—Farmer Raymond Manalo faced the Regional Trial Court (RTC) here on Monday and recounted how two missing University of the Philippines (UP) students were tortured and sexually abused in Bulacan and Bataan provinces by soldiers under the command of retired Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan Jr.

At the resumption of the hearing on the kidnapping and serious illegal detention case against Palparan, the so-called “butcher” of political activists, Manalo told the court that he first saw UP students Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeño, and farmer Manuel Merino in Camp Tecson in San Miguel town in Bulacan after he was taken there in July 2006.

Cadapan and Empeño were last seen in Hagonoy town in Bulacan in June 2006, when they were allegedly abducted by soldiers.

Manalo said he, his brother Reynaldo, Merino and the UP students were later taken to Limay town in Bataan where he saw how Cadapan and Empeño were abused by their captors.

“They were naked and were being burned using lighted cigarette butts. Their legs were tied to a post in that warehouse in Limay, Bataan. Their sensitive parts were being hit and poked with a bamboo stick,” he told the court in Filipino.

He said he witnessed this because he became an errand boy of the soldiers and was assigned to bring food to the students.

Manalo said the missing UP students also told him that they were raped by their captors.

He said that in July 2007, when he asked one M/Sgt. Donald Caigas about the students’ and Merino’s whereabouts, he was told, “Do not look for them anymore because we have decided to keep them together.”

Manalo then told the court that he was able to sneak into an area outside the Limay warehouse and saw how the soldiers killed and burned Merino.

Manalo, at one point in his three-hour testimony, could not contain his emotions, prompting prosecution lawyer Juan Pedro Navera to ask Judge Teodora Gonzales of the RTC Branch 14 for a five-minute break.

Manalo said a group of Army soldiers and government militiamen took him and his brother on Feb. 14, 2006, on suspicion that they were New People’s Army rebels. He said they were taken to different military camps in Nueva Ecija province and Bulacan, where they were beaten up, tortured and threatened.

He said he first met M/Sgt. Rizal Hilario, one of Palparan’s coaccused who is at large, in San Ildefonso town. Manalo and his brother were later taken to San Miguel town, also in Bulacan, where they met a man whom he later identified as Palparan.

“Palparan told us that they would keep us alive and we would be presented to our parents. I just told him, ‘Thank you very much,’” Manalo said.

He said Palparan reminded them not to talk to human rights advocates and made them promise that they would not attend political rallies.

Manalo’s testimony was also detailed in an affidavit for a complaint he filed against Palparan.

Manalo filed this affidavit, written in Filipino, in the Office of the Ombudsman in September 2008, or more than a year after he and his brother escaped their captors on Aug. 13, 2007, in Pangasinan province.

When Navera asked Manalo if he could identify the man whom he talked to in 2006, he stood up and pointed at Palparan, who was seated near the witness stand.

On the instruction of Clerk of Court Melba David, Palparan stood up and stated his name for the record.

Lawyer Narzal Mallares, who represents Palparan, said they were ready to refute Manalo’s testimony during a cross-examination on Feb. 23.

Abner Torres, lawyer of Palparan’s coaccused, Lt. Col. Felipe Anotado and S/Sgt. Edgardo Osorio, told the court that there were inconsistencies in Manalo’s testimonies.

In an interview after his testimony, Manalo said he owed it to Cadapan, Empeño and Merino to tell the truth. With a report from Tonette Orejas, Inquirer Central Luzon