I Love Pinoys

MANILA, Philippines - The widow of slain peasant leader Eddie Gumanoy on Friday said her 21-year-old daughter was forced by her captors from the military to deny that she and her younger sister were abducted.

“My daughter, Rose Ann, was threatened and was forced to cooperate with her abductors. I knew this would happen because my daughter feared the worst for her and her sister, Fatima,” Maria Gumanoy said in a press statement a day after her daughter gave a press conference at Philippine Army headquarters in Fort Bonifacio to say she and her sister were not being held against their will.

Gumanoy disclosed that while Rose Ann was undergoing treatment at the AFP Medical Center in Quezon City in April when she was first “abducted” in April 1. the military “did not cease, day after day, even hour after hour, of pressing her to cooperate with them.”

“She was threatened that additional charges will be filed against her, that she will go to jail for life, and many other things might happen to her family. At one point, Maria mentioned, Rose Ann revealed to her that she was almost about to give up for fear of her and her family’s life, but she was able to contain herself back then and maintained to stand for the truth, Gumanoy said in a press statement released by the human rights group Karapatan.

In the briefing arranged by the Philippine Army, Rose Ann Gumanoy said she voluntarily went to the company of the military last July 3 so that her sister, 17-year-old Fatima, would be given proper medical attention for German measles.

A day before the Fort Bonifacio briefing, the sisters’ mother filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus with the Court of Appeals in a bid to compel military officials to produce her daughters.

Rose Ann’s father, Eddie, was killed in Mindoro in 2003 along with human rights activist Eden Marcella. Militant organizations claimed the two were executed by Army soldiers under retired Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan.

Rose Ann was captured and slapped with a rebellion case by the military after she was wounded in a fire fight last April 15. She posted bail with the help of Karapatan after recovering at the AFP Medical Center in Quezon City.

In the briefing, Rose Ann said after living with Karapatan for some time, she decided to leave to meet with her sick sister.

Gumanoy accused the military of using Fatima to blackmail Rose Ann.

“She is very close to Fatima and I believe she could not bear to see her sister suffering what she had experienced in the hands of these perpetrators,” the mother said in the press statement.

“Fatima, who is a minor at 17 years old, is currently suffering from illnesses which she acquired during their abduction. Maria fears that the Philippine Army is deliberately giving Fatima drugs that weaken her. On July 6, the time Maria saw her at the Philippine Army hospital, Fatima was lying in bed and was constantly guarded by the military. She could barely talk to her mother especially when the military was around. No doctor chosen by the family was allowed to see and check up Fatima,” said the statement.

It said Gumanoy was “enraged at the idea that her daughters are not allowed to see other family members, their chosen lawyer and doctor, a social worker, and even Bayan Muna Representative Satur Ocampo whom she has sought for help. The military instead presented Rose Ann to the media, an action which Mrs. Gumanoy thinks is against Rose Ann’s will.”

“From the very beginning, we have already mentioned that the military will try to do everything to save again their neck for what they did to Rose Ann and Fatima. We are anticipating that the military will force the two to cooperate with them so that the military will be spared from further shame and damage,” said Dorris Cuario, secretary-general of Karapatan-Southern Tagalog.

Cuario said it was apparent that the military was trying to clear their involvement in the death of Rose Ann’s father and to discredit Karapatan’s credibility. GMANews.TV