The Hint of a Beginning
By Ilang-Ilang Quijano
Noki was already used to not having his parents around most of the time. So he took up the habit of looking at the stars and being comforted by the thought that they were possibly gazing at the same---far away in their chosen path of serving the Philippine revolutionary movement, but safe.
On July 26, 2006, Prudencio Calubid, a consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), his wife Celina Palma, and three others were traveling in a van along the highway in Camarines Norte when they were abducted by suspected military men. Two days later the driver managed to escape. He recounted how they were brought to several safehouses and tortured. It was Calubid who suffered most in the hands of their captors. But the NDFP consultant kept shouting, “You will get nothing from me! Just kill me instead!”
The abduction and torture violates the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights, International Humanitarian Law and the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees between the NDFP and the Government of the Republic of the Philippines.
It took almost a year for 21-year old Noki, a fresh graduate, to decide to come to Manila. He told his relatives that he was going to look for a job and worked for a while as a call center agent. But he could not concentrate on making a living and content himself with looking at the stars.
He resolved, to join the public search for his parents and other desaparecidos. In the process, he found himself becoming involved in the mass movement that his parents embraced before they went underground.