2 MIN READ

By KIMBERLIE QUITASOL
www.nordis.net

BAGUIO CITY — About a hundred students, teachers, and employees of the University of the Philippines Baguio, with the families of their still missing alumni, Dexter Capuyan and Gene Roz de Jesus, lit candles and prayed for the immediate and safe on May 23.

“All we ask is an end to our suffering. Losing a child is not a joke, may those who took my son feel the pain of a mother and a daughter who has not seen her father for a long time,” said Ditz de Jesus, mother of Gene or Bazoo as he is fondly known in UP Baguio.

“And so, in this vigil, let us all pray that the hearts of their captors soften…that wherever they may be, they return alive and well,” she added.

It has been 25 days since men who identified themselves as operatives of the Criminal Detection and Investigation Group (CIDG) of the Philippine National Police (PNP) forcibly took the two in Taytay, Rizal.

Capuyan was a former editor-in-chief of Outcrop, the official UP Baguio student publication, and city-wide chapter chair of the League of Filipino Students. De Jesus, on the other hand, is a 2016 communications cum laude graduate who headed the Alliance of Concerned Students and the University Council of Leaders.

As part of their enduring search, family and friends of Capuyan and de Jesus came to UP Baguio to ask for the administration’s support.

Gabrielle Capuyan, daughter of Dexter, said during the prayer vigil that they visited the colleges of UP Baguio to seek help in their continuing search for her father and his companion.

“So we continue to call for the support of the UP administration as well as gather a statement from them,” she reiterated.

She further thanked everyone who has been assisting them since day one.

De Jesus’s mother also expressed her gratitude to the UP Baguio students, faculty, and employees who joined the prayer vigil and supported their unwavering search for their loved ones.

She recalled that in 2016, her family was in UP Baguio to attend Bazoo’s graduation. “Today, as we return, we are here to ask for the (UP Baguio) administration’s support,” she said in Filipino.

She especially thanked friends, acquaintances, and fellow students of her son for their “full support” in the search for their kin.

“We thank you for your solidarity and support today and in the days still to come. Today is just the beginning of our fight, and we will continue to fight for a better society for the younger generation,” she said.A solidarity night followed after the prayer vigil at the Sarmiento Hall of UP Baguio, where family, friends, and supporters shared stories and poems for De Jesus and Capuyan. # nordis.net