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MANILA, Philippines?(UPDATE 3) Filipino-American activist Melissa Roxas on Thursday said she remembers the face of one of her abductors who forcibly took her and two companions on May 19 in La Paz, Tarlac.
Roxas broke down as she narrated how she was dragged from the house where she was staying in the sub-village of Bagong Sikat and then hurled into a van by a man in maroon shirt, wearing a bonnet.
The man who sat beside her in the van took off his bonnet and Roxas said she saw his face.
"I said 'maawa ka sa kin kuya (have pity on me),' then he put the blindfold on me," she told the Commission on Human Rights panel led by its chairperson Leila de Lima in a hearing Thursday.
Asked by De Lima if she remembers the man's face, Roxas said, "I do. I remember his side view, then I was blindfolded."
Roxas said she and companion Juanito Carabeo, who is in his early 50s, and Edward Jandoc, 21, were staying in the house of a certain "Kuya Jesus" on May 19 and were watching the noontime show Eat Bulaga when some 15 men, some in white shirt and carrying long firearms, barged into the house and forcibly took them.
Roxas was separated from Carabeo and Jandoc.
She said she kept on shouting her name "because it's the only thing I can do," adding that she was hoping someone could hear her name.
Roxas said she was hurled in a blue van and was brought to a structure similar to a jail.
She said her hands were tied on the first night of her abduction and that she was not offered food.
Several men took turns interrogating her to make her admit she is a member of the communist New People's Army. She said she denied the charge and kept on repeating her name. She also said she wanted a lawyer.
"Walang human rights dito. We got you cleanly. Walang lawyer, lawyer dito (There are no human rights here. There are no lawyers here)," Roxas recalled the men telling her.
Roxas, Carabeo, and Jandoc were conducting a survey in the village for a medical mission.
Roxas said members of the military particularly from the 7th Infantry Division tortured her while in captivity for seven days.
She was released on May 25.
Roxas?s abductors gave her a small bag containing a pair of handcuffs, two books?a bible and Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Love in the Time of Cholera?and cookies when they released her.
Commission chairperson Leila de Lima, who presided over the hearing on Roxas's abduction Wednesday, remarked curtly, "What is it, a remembrance, memorabilia?"
Roxas said she believed the handcuffs they gave her were the same ones used on her.
On May 25, seven days after she was abducted, her abductors, including one of her interrogators identified as RC, took her to her uncle?s home in Quezon City.
During the hearing, Roxas's lawyer Rex Fernandez, submitted to the Commission the contents of the bag and a pair sandals and shirt worn by Roxas.
De Lima directed Commission investigators to find out where the books were bought, as they still contained price tags.
Roxas described her travel from her venue of captivity to her uncle's house aas "smooth."
She said that after she alighted the van near her uncle?s house, she was told to count 100. After few minutes, she received a phone call on the cellular phone given to her by "RC" telling her that she can walk to her uncle's house now.
But her narration of her abduction and torture does not match with the scenes and personalities in the military camp in Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija where she was purportedly detained and tortured, the legal officer of the 7th Infantry Division said.
"Walang nagta-tally sa evidence (Nothing tallies with the evidence)," lawyer Hermilo Barrios told reporters in an interview when asked for his assessment of the testimony of the Filipino-American activist.
Asked if Roxas just made up her story, Barrios said, "We don't know. CHR will determine that."
Asked also to react to Roxas's narration that one of her interrogators told her that her abductors are from the SOG (Special Operations Group), Barrios said the 7th ID does not have an SOG.
Roxas filed a writ of amparo before the Supreme Court, a legal instrument for those whose lives are under threat.
Tension was all over Roxas's face as she entered the hearing room accompanied by her lawyer Rex Fernandez.
The commander of the 7th infantry division, Ralph Villanueva, was not present. He was represented by Colonel Leonido Bongcawil and a lawyer.
Party-list Representatives Satur Ocampo, Rafael Mariano, Luz Ilagan, and Liza Maza were also in the hearing.
Roxas said she is a writer and poet and has attended activities of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan-USA until she became a member in late 2003. But she said is more active as a member of Habi, a cultural group.
Roxas was born in the Philippines in 1977 but has permanently resided in the US since she was 9 years old.
She said she has visited the Philippines not more than 10 times "to know my roots" and to participate in solidarity missions.
Roxas said she is an advocate of health issues and has visited some areas in Central Luzon and Nueva Ecija.
She has been staying in the country since April 23, 2007.
