They said they knew people were looking for them and reiterated the correctness of what they are fighting for – a stop to the reclamation projects at Manila Bay. The two thanked their supporters, saying their freedom is also because of the clamor for them to be surfaced. A protester offered me a snack which I wolfed down as we waited for further developments.Īfter a while, we were told that Jhed and Jonila would be addressing the crowd. It was past six in the evening and I was really hungry at the time. I made my way out of the building to take photos of the protesters. We were asked thereafter to leave as the meeting would be closed door. We were allowed to take photos inside the conference room where the victims and their supporters were ushered in. We ran to our vehicles to join the convoy to Quezon City.Īs we approached the CHR headquarters after a mad dash from Bulacan, we saw activists lined up along Commonwealth Avenue who rushed into the compound as soon as our vehicles arrived. Minutes later, we saw Jonila and Jhed coming out of the building with their lawyers and family. I asked myself, “Why not turn them over now as family and lawyers are already there?” Then I thought, the mayor must be covering her behind because of the military’s objection to the victim’s release. We soon received information that the two would be brought to the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) where the turnover of Jhed and Jonila to their families and supporters would take place. I tried going back to where Jonila and Jhed were being kept to get more direct information but was no longer allowed by the police. By then, Jonila’s parents had arrived with their lawyers and Makabayan bloc Representatives Arlene Brosas and Raoul Manuel to negotiate with the mayor. This time, they faced the onlookers, some of them approaching and explaining what was happening at the mayor’s office. Soon, they reasserted their place in front of the building’s main door and resumed their protest. The police failed to disperse the protesters. The youth pleading with the officers not to push was also hurt. I saw a young girl get hit by a policeman randomly punching the protesters. I rushed downstairs and saw the police personnel dispersing the protesters.Ī protester was shouting “Huwag kayong manulak!” (Don’t push us!). Minutes before three in the afternoon, I heard loud voices on the ground floor. Jhed and Jonila were being kept at the mayor’s office as the local chief executive was deciding on her next move as the military did not want to surrender the two victims to her custody. Upstairs, in front of the mayor’s office, I waited with fellow journalists, waiting for further developments. The students took off their footwear and placed these in between themselves and the police, symbolizing the two sandals left behind when Jonila and Jhed were abducted in Orion, Bataan on September 2. We arrived past lunchtime, finding several Bulacan State University students already protesting in front of the municipal hall, faced by a phalanx of police personnel. The press conference was broadcast live on a local government unit public information office Facebook page as well as on SMNI, galvanized church, rights defenders, and activist groups to troop to Plaridel, Bulacan to demand their immediate release. On the morning of September 19, a press conference organized by the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) was held to present two new trophies, young “surrenderers” to the public.īut the press conference blew up in the face of NTF-ELCAC personnel when Jonila Castro bravely revealed that she and Jhed Reiyana Tamano were abducted by the military forces and were forced to surrender because of the threat to their lives.
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