Abduction and illegal detention of Nomer Kuan and Romeo Sanchez
One of the latest cases of the fascist state's widespread and relentless violations of human rights is the continued illegal detention of Nomer Kuan and Romeo Sanchez, both workers of La Union-based non-government organizations. They were brutally abducted by members of the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP) in Bilibiran, Binangonan, Rizal on May 8.
According to witnesses, soldiers led by Capt. Joey Panganiban and Sgt. Dagar Ayala posed as anti-drug enforcement operatives and boxed, kicked and dragged Kuan and Sanchez into a Tamaraw FX van that had no license plates.
For 10 days, the ISAFP concealed their whereabouts and deprived them of the right to see their lawyer, held them incommunicado and forbade them to communicate with each other. For two days, they were denied food and sleep while undergoing tactical interrogation and were psychologically and sexually abused. They were blindfolded, mauled, strangled with aluminum wire and their legs were burned with lighted cigarettes. They were repeatedly forced to admit their alleged involvement in the death of Conrado Balweg who was punished by the New People's Army in 1999.
At first, despite the demands of relatives, friends and human rights advocates who sought them, the ISAFP and Abra police adamantly denied any knowledge of Kuan and Sanchez' abduction. But on May 19, AFP vice chief-of-staff for intelligence Lt. Gen. Jose Calimlim himself was compelled to surface them.
Calimlim lied when he claimed that Kuan and Sanchez were arrested only on May 18 and that they were "communist rebels" working for Lorna Rivera-Baba who, in March, had earlier been implicated by the regime in Balweg's death.
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