Melissa Roxas is someone I am proud to call a friend. When I met her three years ago, I was struck by her deep desire to return to the Philippines to provide volunteer services to impoverished communities. She is also the first known American citizen under the Obama administration to have become a victim of abduction and torture in the Philippines, a country which has drawn international condemnation for state-sponsored human rights atrocities.
Abducted and tortured in the Philippines from May 19-25, Roxas on June 28 spoke out publicly, for the first time, about what she endured while held for six days in what appeared to be a military camp. Ms. Roxas, an American human rights advocate of Filipino descent, was in the Philippines as a volunteer health worker and to do research for a writing project, but her abductors falsely accused her of being an insurgent against the Philippine government.
She described how she and two companions, John Edward Jandoc and Juanito Carabeo, were violently abducted at gunpoint by several heavily armed men. Then she was brought to what she believes was a military camp:
They didn’t feed me during the first day and the second day they did not feed me until night. The whole time throughout my abduction, I was blindfolded and handcuffed, except when they made me take a bath. At first they had me handcuffed in the back but later put the handcuffs in front because my hands were severely cut and bruised.
I was never left alone. There were always men watching me. I was constantly interrogated and during the interrogations they would ask me repeatedly if I knew why I was there. I was told by them that I was abducted because I was a member of the CPP-NPA [Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army]. I repeatedly told them that I was a volunteer health worker and writer and that I have rights. And I demanded my lawyer.
They told me that even if a year passes, I would see no lawyer — that there I had no rights.
They told me repeatedly that it is people like me who are costing the government so much money. It is people like me who are making it difficult for the government. Then they threatened me and beat me.
I remember when two men entered my cell, and one of them … pulled my handcuffs, raising me so that I was sitting. Then he punched me [and] pressed [a thumb] to my throat choking me … then he struck me again on my left jaw and I heard ringing in my ears. They said that I was hard-headed and that I better answer their questions…. Before they left I heard a man say they should just shoot me. So I could not sleep the rest of the time and I kept waiting.
They came back hours later. And they asked me, “Are you ready to die?” They said before they kill people they make them [lose control of their bodily functions] from the pain. And they dragged me out of the cell. All I could do was tell them I had rights and I wanted to see a lawyer, but they kept beating me. At one point they banged the back of my head repeatedly on the wall behind me, and I remember seeing flashes of white light.… Every time I would fall, other men would hold me and force me up.
Then they held my feet and my hands down, and they put two plastic bags over my head and around my neck. I started to suffocate and I could not breathe anymore, and I was seeing white and thinking I was going to die, and then they released the hold.… One of the interrogators said they were merely tools of God making rebels return to the fold, and I told him that my God does not torture people.
[To be continued.]
Katrina Abarcar coordinates the work of Katarungan, which seeks to promote peace, justice, and human rights in the Philippines through research, education, and grassroots advocacy.
