MANILA, Philippines — Family and friends of victims of involuntary disappearance on All Souls' Day challenged candidates running in the 2022 polls to include plans to uphold human rights and stop enforced disappearances in their platforms.
In a statement, Desaparecidos, a group representing the families of the disappeared, echoed the call to surface their loved ones, adding that its yearly offering of flowers and candles at Baclaran Church for their missing loved ones was postponed this year due to COVID-19 restrictions.
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"We are hoping that the future leaders of this country will prioritize upholding people's rights and welfare, specifically in eradicating cases of involuntary disappearances and other human rights violations in the country," Erlinda Cadapan, the group's national chairperson said.
"We are also calling them to help us in finding out the truth and surface our missing loved ones. Also, we are reminding everyone to be vigilant and vote for those who are pro-people and have the utmost respect for human rights."
Cadapan, mother of missing UP student Sherlyn Cadapan, pointed to the case of Elena Tijamo, a Cebu-based development worker who was abducted by suspected state agents in her home in Bantayan Island last June 2020.
On September 1, a year after her abduction, she was found dead in a funeral home in Quezon City and was registered under a different name.
Under the Duterte administration, there had been 19 individuals who had been victims of enforced disappearance.
"Since the Marcos dictatorship until the current Duterte regime, dozens of people from all walks of life had been forcibly disappeared by state forces, mostly activists. Some of them had been found dead. But for most of us, we're clueless to what happened to our loved ones. Some relatives of desaparecidos even passed away without knowing the whereabouts of their missing kin and friends," Cadapan said.
"It doesn't matter if days or years have passed since our relatives went missing – the anxiety and agony is still in our hearts. We still don't know what happened to them. We don't even have graves to visit."