Martial law victim seeks extension for filing claim

MANILA, Philippines - Pablo Pagtama suffered a gunshot wound in the stomach when he was five years old after bullets rained down on their house in Cagayan on Aug. 27, 1980.

He had to suffer the after effects of the wound in the following years, but the pain was more than physical.

The “massacre” took away his grandparents, two aunts, an uncle and two cousins.

More than three decades later, Pagtama still hears the howls of the dying and smells the gasoline used to burn their house.

“Every night, the sound of gunfire dominates my dreams,” he said in Filipino.

He recently started an online petition to ask Congress to extend the period of filing of claims of human rights victims during martial law, which ended last night.

Pagtama said it was ironic that the country had to suffer for two decades under martial law but the implementation of the law recognizing the victims and providing reparations for them will only last for a few years.

Republic Act 10368 mandates the Human Rights Victims Claims Board (HRVCB) to finish its work by 2016, two years after the approval of the implementing rules and regulations.

The law was approved in February 2013.

In his Change.org petition (http://chn.ge/1uUgbB4) Pagtama said he was not able to register as one of the victims due to lack of death certificates of his family members.

Their bodies were neither blessed by the priest nor brought to the municipal hall, he added.

Processing papers has been a problem since he has just been operated on due to complications brought about by his old wounds, he said.

Pagtama urges Senate President Franklin Drilon and  Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. to pass Joint Resolution No. 10 to extend for six months the period of filing of applications by human rights  victims.

“This is the only chance for the victims to at least get partial justice,” he said. “The opportunity should not be taken away from everyone.”

As many as 90,000 victims suffered human rights violations during the martial law regime, while almost 40,000 have already filed claims, according to the HRVCB.

Earlier, the HRVCB said appropriate preparations would be made to hold the next round of acceptance of applications as soon as the extension of the filing period becomes effective. – With Janvic Mateo, Rhodina Villanueva