MARABUT,
Samar, Feb. 25 (PNA) – It’s been more than three decades since the Martial Law
was lifted, but victims and survivors in Samar provinces vividly recalled the
trauma they and their love ones suffered at the hands of law enforcers.
Dolphy
Alumbro, 53, of San Roque village, Marabut town was heading to a church in
Legazpi village for the christening of his fourth son when suddenly a group of
soldiers arrested him for suspicions that he's a member of the New People’s
Army (NPA).
“I was
brought to a camp and beaten by four soldiers for several days to force me to
admit that I was an NPA member,” the farmer said, recalling that 34 other men
from their village suffered the same ordeal.
“I was badly
injured and was restrained from work for 15 days," he added, showing scars
from injuries in different parts of his body.
Men in their
village were suspected as rebels after soldiers observed that they frequently
hiked to upland areas to cultivate their farms.
In
Quinapondan, Eastern Samar, Flaviana Gulferica, 59, has been a widow since 1985
when soldiers killed her husband, Dionesio.
Suspected as
an NPA member, Flaviana's husband was tortured to death by armies camped in
Quinapondan town. “He was brutally tortured and stabbed on the chest leading to
his last breath,” Flaviana tearfully recalled.
A group of
men already buried her husband's corpse before she learned of his death. She
still has to dig her husband out from the ground to have a last glimpse of him
and subject the body to an autopsy, which confirmed that her husband was
brutally killed.
Their
stories are just few of the many stories of torture during the regime of
President Ferdinand Marcos, particularly after the signing of Proclamation No.
1081 on Sept. 21, 1972
Amnesty
International has estimated that during Martial Law, 70,000 people were
imprisoned, 34,000 were tortured, and 3,240 were killed.
JMC/SARWELL Q. MENIANO
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