‘We’re still here’| Kin of the disappeared endure the agony of waiting
By Shannia Cabuello
Bulatlat.com
MANILA – Unlike most Filipino households on All Soul’s Day, the families of the disappeared have no cemeteries, graves, and tombstones to visit and honor their missing loved ones. Every November 2, they would instead gather to remember their loved ones.
This year, members of the Desaparecidos and Karapatan went to Santo Domingo Church to remember their beloved through photos tucked in cardboard, sacred prayers, a short walk, yellow flowers, white ribbons, and white bandanas with the words ‘Surface all desaparecidos’.
“The families of the disappeared only demand simple things: Give us their remains so we will have a place to light a candle for them, grant us the moment to grieve, and hold the people responsible for the enforced disappearances into account,” lamented JL Burgos, brother of the disappeared Jonas Burgos.
Under the Marcos Jr. administration, the victims of the enforced disappearances reached to 14, adding up to at least 1,900 desaparecidos since the Marcos Sr. dictatorship. The grief runs deep as the families remain steadfast with their promise to never forget, and to never stop demanding truth and justice until all the disappeared are surfaced.
Families still hold onto hope, faith
Nica Ortiz, sister of a then farmer activist Norman Ortiz, never thought she would join gatherings and protests against injustices. “It has been three consecutive years since I started attending activities like this. They would never understand until it happens to them,” Ortiz said, responding to those who urged her to stop searching.
Her brother Norman was abducted with his friend Lee Sudario on September 29, 2023 in Gabaldon, Nueva Ecija. She said Norman went to Barangay Bantug to meet Lee but failed to return home. They sought help from Karapatan after a day without a word from him.
Norman and Lee are both gone without a trace, leaving their families no graves to grieve at. “I want him to be remembered in his fight for farmer’s rights and as a defender of the environment,” Ortiz added, disclosing that Norman went to Gabaldon to oppose those destroying their mountains.
Ortiz does not just mourn the disappeared, but also endures the military’s red-tagging. “Since I started joining rallies, state forces have visited our home to urge me to quit attending gatherings like this and stop searching for my brother,” Ortiz shared in an interview with Bulatlat.
“I pray for us to finally see our loved ones, in whatever state they may be, and for the disappearances to end,” Ortiz expressed. She still believes and hopes that someday, families of the disappeared will be able to be reunited with their siblings, mothers, fathers, children, partners, friends, and comrades.
Similarly, Chuwaley Capuyan, the daughter of indigenous rights activist Dexter Capuyan, hopes that the families of desaparecidos will be steadfast and faithful in their fight, continuing their search and call for justice. His father was abducted on April 28, 2023 with his colleague Gene Roz Jamil “Bazoo” De Jesus.
“People say I look like him. Sometimes I think that whenever I look in the mirror, I would see him. I hope that someday I won’t need to look for him in the shape of my eyes, nor in the streets of Taytay. I hope I find him in our home. I hope they know that we are still here, searching and hoping,” Capuyan pleaded.
Capuyan remembers her father by trying to update him about her present life. She still wonders where and how they are now, and how long until they meet the disappeared again.
After many years of searching, some daughters of the disappeared have children now. Daughter of the abducted National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) consultant Leo Velasco, Aya Santos stated that she now understood the meaning of her father’s struggle.
“I am happy today but also sad because the reason for this activity is an everlasting pain. I hope the rotting system ends now so our children would no longer need to fight. And so there will no longer be desaparecidos in the next generation,” said Santos in a statement.
The families still hope for answers as they call to surface all victims. To conclude the remembering, the participants offered flowers and pinned white ribbons on photos of the disappeared tucked in cardboard, holding back their tears to show courage in their continued fight for truth and justice. (RVO)
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