Enforced disappearance survivors in distress over police visits to loved ones

MANILA — Enforced disappearance survivor Francisco “Eco” Dangla III denounced the police visits to his relatives and to the family of his fellow survivor Joxielle Tiong.

Accompanied by the Environment Defenders Congress (EDC) and Karapatan Central Luzon, Dangla filed a counter-manifestation to the Court of Appeals (CA) on November 24, 2025, citing the police’s “misdirected time and resources” in conducting visits to his residence and to his relatives, as well as in trying direct communication through text and phone calls.

“These visits and questioning in the absence of counsel have been causing much stress and anxiety to the Petitioner (Dangla) and his relatives who are still recovering from the aftermath of his abduction,” the counter-manifestation reads.

The National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL) legal counsel of Dangla and Tiong wrote to the city police chiefs of San Carlos and Dagupan, Zaldy Fuentes and Lawrence Keith Calub respectively, to express their opposition.

Dangla has extensively narrated all information about his abduction in his judicial affidavit, available publicly. He was also subjected to cross examination by the Solicitor General and responded to the inquiries of the Court of Appeals (CA). Copies were also furnished to the Philippine National Police Regional Office 1 and Pangasinan Provincial Police Office.

“Hence, Mr. Dangla and Mr. Tiong believe that there are no cogent reasons for the subsequent visits by members of the police given that all information known to them are publicly available,” NUPL wrote in a letter.

The CA admitted that Dangla was forcibly disappeared and that the police and military failed to exercise extraordinary diligence in investigating his disappearance. The same court denied the writ of amparo and habeas data petitioned by Dangla. 

Read: Poor investigation of disappeared activists as human rights violation

Dangla filed a motion for reconsideration on September 29, assisted by NUPL. “The court did not deny that the abduction transpired,” said Dangla in a previous interview with Bulatlat. “But the court could not find the links of the state security forces despite our evidence of red-tagging, death threats, and even phone communications.”

The writ of amparo is a legal remedy and protection available to any person whose right to life, liberty, or security has been violated or is threatened. This is supposed to protect people against extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances. The writ of habeas data, meanwhile, serves to protect a person’s right to privacy in life, liberty, or security against unlawful collection, storage, or use of personal data of the victim.

Read: Braving trauma, survivor Eco Dangla appeals court denial of protection

Hustisya, an organization of victims of human rights violations, said that CA’s decision is perplexing and potentially dangerous, rendering Dangla and Tiong more vulnerable to grave human rights violations.

“The CA decision raises serious concerns about accountability. It risks creating an environment where human rights violations may go unchecked, sending the troubling impression that consequences for such acts are becoming harder to enforce,” said VJ Topacio, Hustisya’s spokesperson.

Karapatan Central Luzon said that the CA decision is a contradiction and deeply alarming as the nature of the operation from its precision, timing, coordination, and concealment indicates the involvement of actors with substantial resources and command structure.

“Only the State possesses the intelligence network, armed personnel, logistical capacity, and operational control required to conduct a coordinated abduction, prolonged incommunicado detention, and interrogation,” the group said in a statement. “To acknowledge the abduction while refusing to recognize the only actors capable of carrying it out is to distort justice and obscure the truth.”

Prior to Dangla’s disappearance, he had been labeled by the local government, particularly its Regional Peace and Order Council, as a “regional threat.”

Dangla and Tiong were mauled before being forced into a van by armed men on March 24, 2024 in barangay Polo, San Carlos, Pangasinan. Four days later, the two activists surfaced, following a strong campaign of more than 600 individuals and international and local organizations calling for their immediate release.

As they filed a counter-manifestation on November 24, human rights groups also conducted a symbolic protest outside the CA, removing their blindfolds in unison to dramatize what they described as the state’s refusal to confront its own human rights violations.

EDC said that both Dangla and Tiong were environmental advocates from Pangasinan People’s Strike for Environment (PPSE). “Their abduction occurred in the context of their active campaigns against destructive and controversial projects in the province, including proposed waste-to-energy plants, modular nuclear plants, and black sand mining operations.”

They said that the repeated visits to the residence of the victims and their relatives, under the guise of “continuing investigation”, represent a pattern of harassment long documented. The efforts of the authorities should be realigned to investigating the people behind the crime, and not the survivors, relatives, and supporters who should have been receiving protection.

The counter-manifestation’s strongest lead that should be the main subject of investigation is the Gcash number used by the abductors.

During their abduction, the Facebook account of Tiong requested fund transfer to the Gcash account of “Christine Araque” who has posts featuring photographs with Jude Araque, identified in the records and pleadings as a member of the 51st Engineering Brigade of the Philippine Army, an active unit in Pangasinan during the days of abduction.

Investigation reports of the state authorities do not indicate any efforts on their part to investigate the people linked to the Gcash account, the counter-manifestation stated.

“These are not speculative assumptions. They are uncontroverted elements found in the case record—leads that any sincere, competent, and diligent investigation should have pursued immediately,” Karapatan Central Luzon stated.

Dangla, together with human rights groups, called on the CA to grant the activists the urgently needed protection and find merit in their motion for reconsideration.

EDC said, “[G]enuine commitment to extraordinary diligence requires ensuring that survivors and their families are shielded from retaliatory acts by the very forces implicated in the crime.”

The Philippines is one of the countries where impunity is glaring for cases of enforced disappearance, according to International Coalition Against Enforced Disappearance (ICAED). Of over 2,000 cases since the Martial Law, not one has been held accountable.

No one has been prosecuted under the Anti-Enforced Disappearance Law of 2012 and the government has not yet ratified the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. (DAA)

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