Human right abuses here and now

Victims of forcible abductions and torture speak out

xistentialist Friedrich Nietzsche famously observed, “That which does not kill us makes us stronger.” To Axel Pinpin, an activist once allegedly abducted and tortured, knows all too well that this philosophy holds true. And he learned it the hard way. Nowadays, three years since his abduction, Pinpin appears to be in a better place. As a survivor, he now has the mental resolve to look at his story at a lighter note. Like all facts of life, He would even describe it as an “action movie” unfolding before his eyes. As a protester, he has now been assigned from being “a backstage man” to a frontrunner. He is currently one of the spokespeople of prominent human rights group, Karapatan. And as an advocate, his beliefs for his cause have evolved. From understanding the theories of rights violations, he now believes that he has the “field experience” that makes him even more credible.

But despite the gains that came from his plight, he maintains that the scars have yet to heal.

“There is much fear from my part now,” Pinpin told The Manila Times. “Before all I knew about these scenarios were abstract. Now I know that they are real and that frightens me.”

To this day, Pinpin remembers the cell he was kept in vividly in minute detail—how many paces from end to end, its dankness and smell, the texture of its walls and the sound outside its windows—because he spent much time in it blindfolded. Bereft of sight, his other senses were heightened. Imprinted upon them were his captors’ smell, the cadence of their steps and the timbre of their voices and the threats they said. And he remembers the exact date when it all began—that fateful day of August 28, 2006.

“My companions and I just came from a meeting,” he said. “Back then, I was a fulltime activist of the provincial chapter of Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas. I was a mass researcher and an information officer aiding farmers with their problems. As a member of that organization, I attended a meeting done in preparation for a rally. But come afternoon, several men who weren’t even wearing uniforms halted us.

They said that we were being arrested for rebellion but we knew that we weren’t being arrested. We were being abducted.”

What followed were several days of darkness. Blindfolded, he did not know where he was taken. All he could do was rely on the remainder of his senses. With his nose he whiffed the pungent odor of a dusty cell. With his hands, he measured the distance of the walls separating him from freedom. With his ears, he realized that he was probably near the Villamor Airbase or some place where “you can hear both the train and the roar of an airplane.” And with his gut, he felt that he was nearing the end of his life.

“I learned that when you’re at the brink of death, your senses get heightened,” Pinpin told The Times. “I was able to count on them during that scenario. Hence, I can tell my story. I was blindfolded for maybe three days and three nights. I was handcuffed and there were instances wherein my legs were tied.”

But according to him, what followed was far worse than he had expected. Days after being imprisoned they were then presented to the media—as “trophies” so he said. But while he expected to see his family or at the very least his lawyer, that was not what occurred.

“They kept us hidden for a few more days,” he said. “That’s when it started—when they tried to convince us to ‘confess’ that we are indeed plotting against the government even though we are noncombatants and our organization is legal. They said that we were armed with guns and explosives, materials for making explosives. That’s what they had attempted to use to prove that we were rising up and arms and trying to overthrow the administration. But we weren’t. So, in my case, I was subjected to tortures.”

According to Pinpin, the methods used ranged from psychological attacks to brute force. While there were times when they would address him as though it was merely “a job interview,” there were also times when they would get physical with him as though he really was a criminal to be convicted for the worse things done by a man.

“At first they asked me all the simple questions,” he said. “But then they started saying things like ‘now let’s go to your revolutionary background.’ At that point, they asked me a series of questions like why I chose to be a ‘rebel’ and whenever they didn’t like my answer or the way I answered they pointed a gun at me.”

“There were also times when they beat me up,” he added. “There were times when they hit me so hard that I got thrown to a chair. They kept forcing upon me that I’m a member of the New People’s Army that it came to a point when I even said ‘sir, why don’t you just write down what you want my answer to be since I don’t seem to have a say in the matter.”

He also stated that even tortures of a sexual manner were used upon him.

“I can remember a time when someone even grabbed my manhood,” he said. “There was a man who told me that he wanted to fellate me but, thankfully, nothing of that sort happened.”

Besides the torture, Pinpin recounts that the conditions also worsened his predicament. Blindfolded, he was forced to go to a waterless bathroom inside his cell while his captors laughed at him. As for food, he was forced to endure eating rice and old noodles.

All these combined drove Pinpin close to being at his worst. With both his body and spirit battered, fears began to stir within him. But as he recounts, he stated that he wasn’t worried about the usual things. As much as he wanted to see them, he wasn’t troubled by the fact that his wife and children were looking for him. And even though there was a big chance of it taking him, death did not scare him.

“I was afraid that I might crack,” he told The Times. “I was afraid that for the sake of getting out of that mess, I would give in—that I might suddenly abandon all my principles. I wasn’t afraid of death. When I came into this, when I started being an activist, I already had an idea of what was in store. I knew that one out of two activists can die fighting for what they believe in. I already accepted that long ago.”

Armed with such a resolution, Pinpin continued to weather through his incarceration until all the violence and the psychological attacks were replaced with a far more sophisticated mode of convincing—diplomacy.

“They offered money and jobs,” he said. “They offered a better life. There was even a female interrogator who befriended me. I wrote a poem about her entitled Alaala ng Babaeng Interogador [Memories of a Female Interrogator.] But after what I’ve been through, I couldn’t bear to give in.

Eventually, they moved me and my other companions to a more humane prison as our cases were being reviewed.”

During his imprisonment, Pinpin said that morale was indeed low. But as his strength waned, it was ultimately the outpour of support from the outside that allowed him to endure.

“The farmers that I fought so hard for were willing to fight for me,” he told The Times. “They really supported me. There were also some government officials that vouched for my innocence. Of course, my family was out there. A lot of people rallied for me because they knew that I’m innocent. I knew that because of their support, I got inspired to keep going with the hopes of one day reclaiming my freedom.”

And he did. Upon the dismissal of his case 28 months since his abduction, Pinpin was released. And with such an experience embedded within him, his duties as an activist progressed with the help of Karapatan.

Standing together

As an organization, Karapatan (which in Filipino translates to “entitlement” or “rights”) is an alliance of individuals and groups working for the promotion and protection of human rights in the Philippines. Its founders and members have been at the forefront of the human rights struggle in the Philippines since the time of former president Ferdinand Marcos’ martial law regime. Currently, it is headed by Maria Ilao Enriquez.

“Karapatan started in 1995,” Enriquez told The Times. “It is a continuation of the documentations and investigations done for the cases of human rights violations during the time of Marcos and even former president Corazon Aquino which included the Mendiola massacre.”

Through Karapatan, Pinpin was not only able to tell his story; he was also able to use his darkest hour to shed some light.

“It’s funny because before my abduction, I would face the media to give press releases,” he said. “Now I would face the media to give interviews. I used to be a backstage man. Now I’m in the fore speaking at rallies and sharing my story. I was lucky enough to have survived now I’m going to use this new lease on life the way I see fit.”

Others however were not as lucky as Pinpin. According to Enriquez, the cases documented by Karapatan alone are already too many. In terms of extrajudicial killings, she said that they have already reached beyond a thousand counting from the regime of President Gloria Arroyo alone. There is still the issue of the cases that occurred during the time of former Presidents Joseph Estrada and Fidel Ramos.

“To be honest, our time now seems worse than the Martial Law Era,” Enriquez told The Times. “Why would I say that? Because Marcos was able to grossly and systematically violate our rights by declaring openly during the Martial Law. We are not under Martial Law right now. And yet, so many killings; so many disappearances. That is frightening.”

“Perhaps that could be one of the reasons why I survived,” Pinpin added. “During that time, the Arroyo government was already getting a bad reputation for a time when there were so many killings going on so they decided to spare me and a few others. But that’s just a guess.”

Regardless of these challenges however, Karapatan promises that it would push forth. As for Pinpin, while his horrid experience did scar him, needless to say, he did survive. And if the old statement holds truth, if what does not kill you can only make you stronger, the violators of his rights have made a very strong enemy. –Angelo Cantera, Correspondent, Manila Times