HRonlinePH Featured Video- “Unsilenced”….the cry for justice will never be silenced

silence- a transitive verb which means to compel or reduce to silence, suppress as in to “silence dissent.” and/or to cause to cease hostile firing or criticism as in “silence the opposition.” http://www.merriam-webster.com

Who would have not been moved by a scene of mothers narrating about how their children were summarily killed? Who would have not been touched by a footage of fathers and siblings in a bushy area of an abandoned military camp searching for their kin, hoping to find conclusions of their loved-ones who have been disappeared?

Who will be un-silenced?

“Unsilenced”…this 20-minute video documentary is about the search for justice of families of six workers of the Paper Industries Corporation of the Philippines (PICOP) Resources, Inc. collectively known as PICOP 6.

Joseph Belar, Jovencio Lagare, Romualdo Orcullo, Diosdado Oliver, Artemio Ayala Jr. and Arnold Dangkiasan were disappeared on October 14, 2000 at Barangay Sta. Maria, Trento, Agusan del Sur. They were allegedly abducted by members of the Philippine Army’s 62nd Infantry Battalion.

“Unsilenced” was written and directed by King Mark Baco in 2010 and was produced by the Asian Federation Against Enforced Disappearances (AFAD) and Families of Victims of Involuntary Disappearances (FIND).

“Unsilenced” exposes the truth to our society that enforced disappearance is among if not the worst form of human rights violation ever practiced and is considered a crime against humanity.

“Unsilenced” shows the need for the government to undertake concrete measures that would deter recurrence of enforced disappearance cases by immediate enactment of an anti-enforced disappearance law and, the signing and ratification of the International Convention for the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance. These are vital steps to bring perpetrators to justice that could prevent and eradicate enforced disappearances. ECJR

For more information about the campaign Justice for PICOP 6, please visit:

Briefer on the PICOP 6 Case

Enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings and other human rights violations have been unabated from the Marcos regime to the Arroyo administration, abetted by a pervasive culture of impunity.

The families of victims of human rights violations have steadfastly struggled for justice through legal and metalegal means. When courageous witnesses come forward, the families file criminal cases before the courts with dispatch.

However, in the absence of special laws criminalizing enforced disappearance and extrajudicial killings, the perpetrators are charged with kidnapping and serious illegal detention and/or murder.

Pending before the Office of the Provincial Prosecutors in Patin-ay, Prosperidad, Agusan del Sur is a joint criminal complaint for multiple murder, grave coercion, kidnapping and serious illegal detention, and torture against Col. Eustaquio Cabando, 2nd Lt. Enrico Calumag, PFC Miguel Bachecha, Sgt. Fernando Cagadas, Sgt. Angel Perilla, Sgt. Cesar Polito, PFC Jocelo Pitos, MSgt. Ventorito Saballa, PFC Bienvenido Veto, Sgt. Renante Castaneda, PFC Jesus Patrimonio and PFC Ronda.

The criminal complaint was filed by the relatives of six workers of the PICOP Resources, Inc. who were forcibly disappeared on the night of 14 October 2000 at Barangay Sta. Maria, Trento, Agusan del Sur.

Joseph Belar, Jovencio Lagare, Romualdo Orcullo, Diosdado Oliver, Artemio Ayala and Arnold Dangkiasan were at the entrance of a videoke bar when Corporal Rodrigo Billones from the then nearby encampment of the 62nd Infantry Battalion, 8th Infantry Division of the Philippine Army herded the six kargador of logs to the military camp.

The following year the relatives of the disappeared filed a kidnapping and serious illegal detention case against Billones before the Regional Trial Court Branch 6 in Prosperidad, Agusan del Sur. They withdrew their earlier habeas corpus petition against Billones and Colonel Cabando in the same court in favor of the criminal case.

Crispin Barot, a friend of the missing workers who was able to evade abduction by concealing himself in the crowd, recounted in court the abduction at gunpoint of his barkada from the peryahan up to the moment that the army camp gate closed after his six friends had been brought inside.

Relatives of the disappeared also narrated in court how they inquired about the whereabouts of their loved ones from the camp authorities who denied having custody of their missing kin. According to Artemio Ayala, Sr. and Macaria Lagare, they immediately went to the camp the following day upon learning of the abduction from Crispin Barot but they were not allowed to enter. It was only six days later when they were accompanied by their Mayor, Vice Mayor and Barangay Chairperson that they were allowed to go inside.

The defense demurred to the evidence but the court denied the demurrer declaring that: “The presumption is always that a witness is telling the truth and upon him who assails his story lies the burden of disproving it.”

Four years later Sgt. Esequias Doyugan, a member of the 62nd IB took pity on the families of the six workers and offered to testify in court. According to Sgt. Doyugan, on the night of 14 October 2000, he learned about the abduction of the workers and stated that although the commanding officer, Col. Cabando was not in the camp then, he knew of the arrest because Sgt. Doyugan overheard the camp senior officer, 1st Lt. Enrico Calumag, call Col. Cabando by radio and the latter gave orders that what they did in Desamparados, Talacogon to slain NPA suspects Cris Duenas and Roberto Papintahan should also be done to the six detainees. Sgt. Doyugan further said that he saw the six workers, who were tied with a rope, approaching the camp even as they were manhandled by armed privates. The soldiers, including Billones, Bachecha, Cagadas, Castaneda, Perilla, Pitos and Saballa herded the suspects into the camp. According to Doyugan, Billones even greeted him with a “high five” as Billones believed that the detainees were NPAs who were responsible for the ambush of Col. Velasco.

Doyugan further testified that he witnessed how Veto, Polito, Ronda and Saballa bashed the heads of the victims with iron pipes, dug graves and buried the bodies at the back of the PX building, dug up the bodies three days later and loaded them on a Chevrolet service vehicle, and burned them at the “Rampid” at Km. 57 in Barangay Nueva Gracia, Trento.
Doyugan, however, cleared Billones of any actual participation in the extrajudicial killing as well as in the digging up and burning of the corpses.

Thus, Executive Judge Dante Luz N. Viacrucis in a landmark decision rendered in July 2008 convicted Billones not as a principal but as an accomplice to the kidnapping and serious illegal detention of the six PICOP workers. The court sentenced Billones, for each of the six victims, to the indeterminate penalty of 9-15 years of imprisonment and to indemnify the heirs of each of the six victims the sum of P50,000 as life indemnity and P50,000 as moral damages. The period he spent under preventive detention since 28 June 2001 shall be credited to the service of his sentence. Billones elevated the case to the Court of Appeals in Cagayan de Oro City.

With respect to the other soldiers of the 62nd IB who were implicated by Duyogan, the court ruled that “there is cause now for the Department of Justice to start an inquiry into their criminal culpability.”

Since the NBI investigation into the involvement of the implicated soldiers was grinding slowly, the families of the victims decided to file the instant complaint for multiple murder, grave coercion, kidnapping and serious illegal detention, and torture. This, notwithstanding the question pertaining to the absence of the bodies of the victims.

The absence of the bodies should have been a non-issue had the anti-enforced disappearance bill been enacted into law as the PICOP 6 case exhibits all the three essential elements of enforced disappearance – 1) deprivation of liberty 2) by State authorities 3) followed by concealment of the fate and whereabouts of the disappeared.

Prepared by: The Families of Victims of Involuntary Disappearance (FIND)