HAPPY WEEKEND

Those unreported military ‘abductions’
Gina P. Dizon

SAGADA, Mountain Province -- Major Jessie Perez of the provincial office of the Philippine National Police when asked if there is any abduction that happened at Buasaw mountain range at the provincial boundary of Abra and Mountain Province on six youngsters denied the incident. Asked why, he said there was no reported incident blottered at the police station of Sagada municipality.

Early news reports said Major General Rodrigo Maclang, commander of the Army’s 5th Infantry Division based in Isabela province said the incident could not be perpetrated by the military because it (military) has no presence in the area.

The family whom Abra residents Sumil Maguinsay, 15, and Egan Lumebyang, 16, stayed for three weeks to do some summer field work in Bangaan, Sagada before they( youngsters) hiked back to Abra enroute Buasaw on June 11, were held by military elements of the Armed Forces of the Philippines for over a week for still unknown reasons.

Very recently, Maguinsay and Lumebyang rejoined their families after they were released by the military follwing pleas of relatives and residents from Tubo, and Tubo barangay captain Suyam Malecdan, relatives of Maguinsay said.

For these incidents to get denied by the military or the PNP just because of an unreported blottered incident is dangerous. Too, for the military’s top officials to say that Buasaw doesn’t have the presence of the military is a hasty conclusion.

The Buasaw mountain range is a provincial boundary between Abra and Mountain Province and the foot trail ( Bangaa-an-Kili-Buasaw) where the military hike in going to Abra. This trail also serves as the shortest way for residents from Tubo, Abra to visit their relatives in Bangaan, Sagada and vice versa.

Chances are, ‘intercepted’ or ‘abducted’ people held in the areas for days by the military will never be known where they don’t have the chance to report their details and whereabouts.

A year ago, on the same mountain ridge, 18-year-old student Michael Uyad of Gueday, Besao was allegedly slain by operating troops of the 54 th Infantry Battalion, sources say. Also on thesame year, military elements allegedly tortured two menfolk from Baclingayan, Tubo, Abra who were en route to Mainit, Bontoc to deliver carabaos.

Even relatives or residents especially those in far flung villages may not have the police station very close nearby for them to immediately report such incidents. People at Barangay Bangaan in Sagada and regional papers were not aware of such incident until news broke out from national GMA news and the global internet.

The host family here said it was only a week after that they came to know that Maguinsay and Lumebyang did not reach home yet. What happened during those seven days and to the children remains to be known. Speculations are rife. Some say they might have been tortured on suspicions that they were members of the New Peoples Army. Some say they might have served as errand boys doing cooking and other domestic tasks. A relative in Bangaan said the youngsters served as guides on trails in the mountain range.

What really happened remains to be known from the youngsters and their respective parents who are in Abra on what happened during those days they were held. What remains is that the youngster-minors were apparently not allowed to go home and held at the mountain range while their relatives worried whatever might have happened to their children or did not have any knowledge at all that their children were held by the military.

With communication gadgets which the military have, it could have been easy to relay to parents of the children that their children were with them. The thing is the military even denied the incident. The military who held them at the mountain range are liable for consequent violations they could have committed. The military owes an explanation to the youngsters whom they held, to their respective families and to the public.