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Relatives Remember the Disappeared, Urge Government to Enact Law, Ratify Covenant Against Enforced Disappearances

Saturday, November 6, 2010

Relatives Remember the Disappeared, Urge Government to Enact Law, Ratify Covenant Against Enforced Disappearances

Published on November 3, 2010
“Today, as the whole nation remembers the lives of the departed, we commemorate the missing. We light a candle not for their souls to rest in peace but to shed light on their way home. We offer flowers not because we believe they are no longer with us but because they are deeply missed,” Mary Guy “Ghay” Portajada, daughter of a missing labor leader, said.

By RONALYN V. OLEA
Bulatlat.com
MANILA – Lydia de Castro, 62, still sheds tears whenever she narrates how her husband Saulo disappeared 22 years ago.

Saulo, then organizer of Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) in Pandacan, was abducted on Oct. 6, 1988 at a public market in Lucena City. He remains missing to this day.



“It has been four years since he went missing. People are asking me if I am still hoping that he is still alive. If you were in my shoes, would you not hope?”Romy Ancheta, brother of Leopoldo Ancheta, says. (Photo by Ronalyn V. Olea/ bulatlat.com)
Life has never been easy after Saulo disappeared. Lydia did all kinds of odd jobs just to feed her four children. At 16, her eldest daughter Lorena went to Japan and worked as the lead singer of a band to support her siblings.

Every November 2, Lydia joins other families of the disappeared in a gathering at the Redemptorist Church in Baclaran. Together, they light candles, offer flowers and say prayers for their missing loved ones. The Catholic congregation also lost Fr. Rudy Romano who was abducted 25 years ago and remains missing to this day.


“Where do we light candles and offer flowers? We do not even know if they are still alive,” Romy Ancheta, brother of missing consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) Leopoldo Ancheta, said.

Ancheta was reportedly abducted by unidentified men believed to be military intelligence agents on June 24, 2006 in Barangay (village) Tuktukan, Guiguinto town in the province of Bulacan.
“It has been four years since he went missing. People are asking me if I am still hoping that he is still alive. If you were in my shoes, would you not hope?” Romy said in a trembling voice..... MORE

SourceBulatlat.com

URL: http://www.bulatlat.com/main/2010/11/03/relatives-remember-the-disappeared-urge-government-to-enact-law-ratify-covenant-against-enforced-disappearances/

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