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TODAY, August 31, is the National Heroes Day for the Philippines. Yesterday was no
less significant with the global observance of the International Day of
Desaparecidos. Bulatlat produced a video (Philippines: Remembering the
Disappeared) for the rather morbid celebration in honor of the "more than 200
Filipinos--mostly activists--[who] have disappeared" under the reign of the EDSA 2
Illegitimate.
The video presented some 40 or so "victims of the regime's brutal policy against
critics, particularly the Left." The first human face of the contemporary Filipino
desaparecidos under the Gloria Arroyo regime is Honorio Ayroso who disappeared
February 2002 in Nueva Ecija. Not even the elderly seems spared, as evidenced by
the case of Patricio Abalos, who was 61 years old when he went missing in March
2005 at Catbalogan, Samar.
Even women count among the desaparecidos. A matured face belongs to Gloria Soco
who, by newspaper accounts, was not even a member of any left-wing group although
she was a sister-in-law of a consultant of the National Democratic Front. Perhaps,
most harrowing were the cases of Karen Empeno and Sherlyn Cadapan--promising young
lasses from the University of the Philippines and who remain unaccounted for since
being abducted in Hagonoy, Bulacan last June 26, 2006.
The traditional media organizations went practically all out in support of the
swift ouster of the democratically elected Estrada and the installation of Arroyo.
As things unfolded, it proved to be an unwise, nay, stupid "People Power" exercise
that gave birth to a government that turned out to be not only the most unpopular
in Philippine history but one which, as the National Union of Journalists of the
Philippines puts it, stands to leave "a legacy of bloodshed and repression, its
acts of omission and commission nurturing the impunity with which the enemies of
press freedom have operated."
Beautiful but dreadfully poignant Tagalog poetry graced the presentation. The
Balagtasan-style ode to the missing stirs the patriotic and compassionate heart:
________
References:
The Media Under Arroyo: A Legacy of Bloodshed and Repression. July 2007. National
Union of Journalists of the Philippines Site. http://nujp.org/v4/2009/07/the-
media-under-arroyo-a-legacy-of-bloodshed-and-repression/