Rights violations vs Adora Faye de Vera, testament to impunity from Marcos Sr. to Marcos Jr. - Karapatan
KARAPATAN Public Information
Press Release
31 August 2022
References:
Cristina Palabay, Karapatan Secretary General, +639173162831
Karapatan Public Information Desk, +639189790580
Rights violations vs Adora Faye de Vera, testament to impunity from Marcos Sr. to Marcos Jr. - Karapatan
“The
case of Adora Faye de Vera is more than what the current Marcos
administration paints it to be. It is a strong testament to the
prevailing impunity that has seen resurgence with the installation of
the dictator’s son into the presidency. From Adora’s abduction,
torture and rape during the elder Marcos’s martial law, to her
arbitrary arrest and unjust detention under another Marcos, hers is a
most vivid illustration of the continuing injustice against human
rights violations victims,” rights group Karapatan said a week
after the elderly activist was arrested on August 24 in Quezon City.
Karapatan
joined calls to free de Vera, and stressed that her arrest on the
basis of murder and frustrated murder charges are an absurd reversal
of the fact that it should be her who should be demanding justice
from the perpetrators of all the crimes against her family from
martial law to present.
“State
forces portray Adora Faye as a terrorist, purportedly erasing the
crimes they have committed against her, from her detention, torture
and rape, and the disappearance of her husband. Adora Faye’s
testimony of her harrowing ordeal was one of the strongest
testimonies monumental in the filing of the class suit against the
Marcos estate in Hawaii after the fall of the dictatorship,”
Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay said, emphasizing that
de Vera is among the ten named plaintiffs in the landmark class
action suit against the Marcos estate in the US courts.
Adora
Faye de Vera is an activist, writer, researcher and former deputy
secretary general of Gabriela, who has consistently fought for
women’s rights, being a victim of sexual violence against women
when she was arrested and tortured by the military under Marcos’
martial law.
The
Hawaii class suit opened an avenue in rendering partial justice to
all victims of rights violations, including the passage of a law for
the recognition and reparations for martial law victims. However,
despite being one of the named plaintiffs in the class suit, Adora
Faye did not apply for recognition or reparation, and said that no
amount of monetary compensation can make up for all the crimes
committed against martial law victims.
“Adora
Faye’s stance on pursuing justice, along with her lifetime advocacy
for women’s and human rights, exposes the absurdity of the
trumped-up cases filed against her. We can only believe that these
are made along the same breath of so many trumped-up charges invented
and concocted by State forces against activists and political
dissidents, spun from the same old narrative of pointing and picking
at anyone labelled and red-tagged as ‘rebel’ and ‘subversive’
as terrorists,” said Palabay.
She
also deplored the manner in which she was arrested, which according
to her, is an inch close to abduction. The group also said that had
it not been reported by the media, they fear that Adora Faye may have
suffered the same ordeal as her husband, Manuel Manaog, who was
forcibly disappeared in 1990.
“Based
on her account, members of the arresting team posed first as from the
Bureau of Fire Protection, and only introduced themselves as cops
when they have positively identified her. They snatched Adora Faye
out of the apartment where she was staying, with no coordination from
the local barangay, and flew her immediately from Quezon City to
Calinog, Iloilo. For 24 hours, she was not seen by any family member
or legal counsel. Her arrest was only known publicly after a news
article was released by an online regional newspaper,” recounted
Palabay.
According
to Karapatan, there are 801 political prisoners in the Philippines,
like Adora Faye, who face trumped up criminal charges. Close to a
hundred have illnesses, including life-threatening medical conditions
made even worse by their incarceration in overcrowded detention
facilities and cruel treatment by jail authorities and personnel.
Karapatan
strongly called for an immediate junking of the trumped-up charges
against Adora Faye. “In her advanced age, Adora Faye does not
deserve more jail time, with her lifetime work to uphold the rights
of women, peasants and families of victims of rights violations. We
demand the dismissal of trumped up charges against her. ‘Never
again’ has never been so true in the case of Adora Faye, a survivor
and twice victim of the Marcoses. We demand that the Marcos II
administration release her soon. Free Adora Faye de Vera now!”
ended Palabay. #
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KARAPATAN is an alliance of human rights organizations and programs, human rights desks and committees of people’s organizations, and individual advocates committed to the defense and promotion of people’s rights and civil liberties. It monitors and documents cases of human rights violations, assists and defends victims and conducts education, training and campaign.