Woman pleads: ‘Show my husband, dead or alive’

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga, Philippines—Lourdes Estriber has no idea who abducted her husband, Joey, an environmental activist and radio host, in Aurora on March 3 five years ago.

But to Joey’s abductors, Estriber has a plea: “I hope that his abductors would surface Joey, alive or dead, so we can finally see him. It’s difficult explaining to our children where he is. If I say he’s dead, they’ll ask, ‘Where is he buried?’ or ‘Why are we not visiting him?’ If he’s alive, they’ll ask, ‘Why are we not seeing him?’” Estriber said in a telephone interview from Baler, Aurora, on Tuesday.

Joey, as secretary-general of the Multi-Sectoral Alliance of Aurora (MSAG), led campaigns against logging, mining and commercial shrimp growing in Aurora. On dwJO-FM, he hosted the weekly program, “Pag-usapan Natin.”

Four armed men abducted him on March 3, 2006, as he emerged at around 7 p.m. from an Internet café on Burgos and San Luis Streets in Baler.

Witnesses told police they saw the armed men force Joey to board a heavily tinted maroon Kia Besta van that did not have license plates.

Government soldiers were suspected to have taken Joey. Four days before the abduction, Joey stopped four soldiers from attending a forum and campaign planning on Charter change in Aurora.

In a text message to the Inquirer that day, Joey identified two of those who barged in the forum as 2nd Lt. Donato Molina and one Sergeant Sanchez.

Col. Joselito Kakilala, then commander of the Army’s 48th Infantry Battalion operating in Aurora, denied his men had a role in the abduction.

“I hope whoever took Joey would free their conscience of guilt. I hope they slip to me information on where they took or buried my husband. I hope they take pity on my children,” said Estriber.

Efforts by the Catholic Prelature of Infanta, Commission on Human Rights, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights and other groups to locate him failed, she said.

The MSAG and the nongovernment organization Bataris are observing the anniversary of Joey’s disappearance with Mass at the site of the abduction, Bataris executive director Alfonso van Zijl said.