Parallel but different roads for 2 seekers of justice

Last Tuesday’s slaying in Pampanga by motorcycle-riding men of Willem Geertman, a Dutch missionary who assisted peasants, indigenous peoples, and environmentalists in Central Luzon, has reignited national and international outrage over the continuing extrajudicial killings in our country.

Geertman’s murder was the 79th incident, recorded by human rights groups, under the Aquino administration. Even foreign governments have challenged P-Noy to deliver on his promise two years ago to stop the killings and end impunity.

Let’s look at the impact on families of these heinous crimes that, under the nine-year Arroyo administration, seemingly rivaled the infamous record of martial law.

Two cases have had parallel impacts but different consequences. These were (1) the gruesome murder of an activist peasant couple, Expedito and Manuela Albarillo, in San Teodoro, Mindoro Oriental, on April 8, 2002; and (2) the shocking massacre of 57 civilians, including 32 journalists, in Ampatuan, Maguindanao on Nov. 23, 2009.

Justice has not been done in both cases. Two direct relatives of the victims in each case took up the fight for justice by publicly speaking up, joining and leading mass protests. Both were repeatedly harassed, threatened with death. However, each took a different course of action.

I refer to Arman Albarillo, one of eight children of Expedito and Manuela, and to Myrna Reblando, the widow of journalist Alejandro Reblando, one of the Ampatuan Massacre victims. Arman I knew up close, having been a sponsor at his wedding. I met Myrna at the first annual pilgrimage to the massacre site in 2010.

The Albarillo couple’s bodies were found brutally mutilated after armed men raided their home at dawn. The raiders were said to be Philippine Army soldiers commanded by then Col. Jovito Palparan - now a fugitive evading arrest through a Bulacan court order for charges of abduction, torture and disappearance in 2006 of two UP students, Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeno.

Fearing for their lives, the Albarillo children got separated in seeking refuge among relatives and friends. Arman and his youngest sister Adeliza were cared for by church and human rights organizations.

Soon, the young man began speaking up in militant protest actions. Arman denounced the Arroyo government’s stonewalling on extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and other human rights violations, demanding justice for the victims. He learned to speak knowledgeably on other issues and became a skilled organizer.

He coordinated the organizational and electoral activities of Bayan Muna-Southern Luzon (of which his parents had been local leaders), rising to become secretary-general of Bayan-Southern Tagalog. His leadership style, perseverance, and conviviality earned the respect, admiration and love of the people he worked with.

In early 2008, military intelligence agents buttonholed Arman, told him he was in the AFP “order of battle,” showed bundles of money saying he could have it and more if he cooperated. He flatly refused, daring the military to “do to me what you did to my parents.” From then on he had to be on the move, often away from his wife and three children to keep them safe.

In October 2008, the AFP included his name among 72 militant leaders and activists in Southern Luzon against whom trumped-up charges were filed in court, implicating them in NPA ambuscades (including one where Palparan was wounded). Arman figured it would be better to go underground.

Myrna Reblando had a parallel though shorter experience. After accepting the duties of spokesperson for the Justice Now! Movement (formed by families of the Ampatuan Massacre victims), she began to receive death threats and bribe offers aimed at silencing her.

For over a year she went into hiding, then decided to seek asylum in Hong Kong, leaving her children behind. Recently, she recounted her travails before the Foreign Correspondents Club, which two years ago honored the massacred journalists with a posthumous Human Rights Press Award.

 “Before, I could speak freely and I thought I had freedom and protection,” Myrna said. “But now I am…being hunted for what I have spoken and without protection even from my own government. Yes, I decided to leave the country because persons seeking remedies and redress in our system of justice, like me and many countless others, have no protection.”

Myrna expressed fear for her children, and justly so.

The Asian Human Rights Commission in HK, in an emailed open letter to the PNP last July 5, points out that her three children - Noel Christopher, James Ryan, and Maria Priscilla - had each filed reports to the police about overt surveillance on their home. But the PNP has done nothing.

The AHRC itself complains: “Despite the urgency of our appeal to protect Reblando’s children… we have not received any reply from the PNP.”

Back to Arman. At age 34, his fight for justice ended in martyrdom. Last June 30 he was slain with 10 others, in an AFP assault on a New People’s Army unit somewhere in the uplands of San Narciso, Quezon.

For the past two days, people from Southern Tagalog, his comrades and friends, have been paying high tribute to Arman, his life and struggle. Today a caravan will take his remains to San Teodoro, to be buried beside his parents.

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