By ELIZABETH PRINCIPE
Consultant, NDFP Negotiating Panel
To extricate itself from further embarrassment and divert the attention from the people’s call for its resignation, the Arroyo regime was forced to surface me. I was abducted by the military last 28 November after undergoing a check-up at the Fern Laboratory in Quezon City and not in a shopping mall as maliciously peddled by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). My surfacing, just like the bombing of Glorietta, was intended to divert the attention from the people’s demand for Arroyo’s resignation.
By ELIZABETH PRINCIPE
Consultant, NDFP Negotiating Panel
To extricate itself from further embarrassment and divert the attention from the people’s call for its resignation, the Arroyo regime was forced to surface me. I was abducted by the military last 28 November after undergoing a check-up at the Fern Laboratory in Quezon City and not in a shopping mall as maliciously peddled by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). My surfacing, just like the bombing of Glorietta, was intended to divert the attention from the people’s demand for Arroyo’s resignation.
I was forcibly abducted by 5-6 members of the military. I was blindfolded, handcuffed, and for 72 hours my ears were inundated with sounds. I was held incommunicado and interrogated inside the Intelligence Service Group at the Philippine Army Headquarters in Fort Bonifacio since 28 November. I was denied my right to counsel.
I was not even aware of the efforts of the Trillanes-Lim group, but I am ridiculously being implicated in the events that occurred at the Manila Peninsula Hotel.
Among the 52 persons listed and charged with rebellion by the Department of Justice (DOJ) under Oplan Bantay Laya, I am the only one who has been surfaced by the military. All the rest are still missing including my husband Leo Velasco. Although the military was against my surfacing, they chose to try to save the moribund regime of Gloria Arroyo.
It is a lie that my arrest stopped the big protest rally against the government last 30 November. The revolutionary actions against the government by the conscious and organized masses continue everyday in different forms all over the country.
Before the Filipino people I am criticizing myself for my laxity in taking security measures especially in this time of militant movement for the ouster of the Arroyo regime.
