[PRESS RELEASE] SELDA condemns killing of two former political prisoners in Iloilo
KARAPATAN Public Information
PRESS RELEASE
07 October 2025
Reference: Bonifacio Ilagan, SELDA Spokesperson
SELDA condemns killing of two former political prisoners in Iloilo
The Samahan ng mga Ex-Detainee Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto (SELDA) condemns in the strongest terms the extrajudicial killing of two former political prisoners in Iloilo on October 5, 2025, and called on the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) to conduct an independent and full-blown investigation.
According to reports from Panay Alliance Karapatan, elderly civilians Mateo Suarez, 71 and Roberto Cabales, 68, were killed by soldiers in Barangay Coto, Lambunao town, in what the military claimed was an “encounter” while serving a warrant. Witness accounts, however, contradict the military’s version, as residents of the community said that there was no indication that a firefight ever took place between the victims and the security forces.
Suarez had been jailed at the Capiz Rehabilitation Center in 2012 and released in 2014 after the court cleared him of charges of murder and illegal possession of firearms. Since then, he had been living in Barangay Coto, spending his time at home.
Cabales, on the other hand, was arrested on June 11, 1999 by the Military Intelligence Group but an Iloilo City Court ordered his release five days later since the warrants used against him did not bear his name. On November 22 of the same year, however, he was abducted together with Ruben Saluta and forcibly disappeared for three days, during which he was subjected to relentless interrogations and threatened with death. Cabales was surfaced after his family, friends and human rights workers searched for him in military camps. Saluta, however, was surfaced after about a month.
SELDA decried as a grave violation of international humanitarian law the profiling and targeting of elderly and defenseless former political prisoners who have long been living as civilians. It called on the CHR to ferret out the truth in order to attain justice for Suarez and Cabales and hold the perpetrators accountable.
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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.