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Justice for Romy Sanchez

The memorial chapel was full of people from different walks of life. In the entrance was his picture accompanied by calls for justice. The family members sat in the first pew, while mourners extended their condolences.

One chapel at the Resureccion Church on Magsaysay Avenue of Baguio City was not enough to accommodate the mourners. The division separating it with the other chapel was removed, as mourners poured in, others standing because there were no more empty seats.

I was among the mourners. I decided to pay my last respects to this honorable man now in a casket. With his picture was a call: Justice for Romy Sanchez and all victims of state terrorism.

I received the news in the evening on Wednesday, March 9. He was gunned down at 5:10 pm on the busy Kayang Street here in Baguio. The assassin shot him once in the head and walked away as if nothing happened. He lay there for nearly an hour before the ambulance arrived. Time was wasted by the responding policemen who arrived earlier. They looked for identification instead of bringing him immediately to the hospital.

He died right on the same spot where he was shot. The way Romy was executed, anyone can say that it is a handiwork of a well planned execution.

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Romy was a peasant organizer in La Union and the whole Ilocos Region. He was a leader who never compromised the interest of this sector. Many attempts were made by the state, particularly the ISAFP (Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines), to silence Sanchez from his vocal stance of raising peasant issues. The ISAFP initiated the inclusion of 14 persons who were NGO and lay workers, including Sanchez, in the killing of Conrado Balweg in December 1999. Later, the NPA-Abra admitted the killing.

On May 8, 2000 at 5:30 pm, Sanchez and a fellow NGO worker were abducted by ISAFP elements in Binangonan, Rizal. The abductors used an FX vehicle bearing no plate number. For 10 days, Romy and his companion were held incommunicado and subjected to psychological and physical torture. While in a safe house, they were blindfolded, kicked, boxed, strangled with aluminum wires, pubic hairs plucked, and denied of food and water. The abductors also shoved gun into Romy’s mouth and his legs burned with lighted cigarettes. They had undergone these tortures for 10 days before they were presented by Gen. Calimlim in the media on May 19.

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It was inside the RTC in Abra that I personally met Romy Sanchez and his companion, Nomer Kuan abducted on May 2000. They were transferred to the Abra provincial jail of that province on June 2. They were presented in court assisted by lawyers Jose Molintas and Rene Cortes. Their lawyers moved to the RTC judge that a preliminary investigation be conducted to determine if there is probable cause that would link Sanchez and his companion on the Balweg killing. The poor Provincial Prosecutor, who committed lapses in including the two, recommended in a resolution submitted to the order of the judge to dismiss the case against the duo. The reason: lack of evidence linking them to the crime. Sanchez and his companion were dropped from the case after several months in jail.

The case was intended to silence Sanchez and his companion through the legal system. It was a concocted case plain and simple. Their abductors were angry at the turn of events and at their newfound freedom.

From his experience, Romy could have chosen not to pursue his involvement in his organization. But the experience seemed to have strengthened his commitment to serve the peasants and marginalized sectors in the Ilocos Region. With his commitment and leadership qualities, he became the Secretary-General of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan in the Ilocos Region (BAYAN-IR) and the Ilocos Regional coordinator of Bayan Muna party list.

He received several threats on his life, his friends affirmed. One time, he confronted those threatening him and told them that he could not be cowed by their threats.

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With the experiences that Romy had, it is possible that his death was work-related. And it is also possible that those who illegally abducted him had something to do with his killing. His abductors were never punished.

Is the killing also an undeclared state policy? The Sanchez killing has similarities with the killing of Tarlac councilor Abelardo Ladera. Hence, I join the call: JUSTICE FOR ROMY SANCHEZ! JUSTICE TO ALL MEMBERS OF MILITANT ORGANIZATIONS KILLED! #

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