International Day of the Disappeared in the Netherlands

Video by ilena

Filipino Refugees in the Netherlands (FREN)
30 August 2009

Utrecht, 30 August – Filipino refugees living in the Netherlands and Dutch organization Aim for Human Rights gathered in the city of Utrecht on 29 August to commemorate the International Day of the Disappeared, echoing the global call to ratify the UN Convention for the Protection of all Persons against Enforced Disappearances and to stop enforced disappearances worldwide.

Participants to the commemoration joined the throng of Saturday shoppers in the city center, holding up photos of the disappeared and giving passersby white balloons with photos and information about the disappeared. Dave Harvey, member of Aim for Human Rights and coordinator of the commemoration activity, led the participants in distributing 300 balloons and telling the stories of the disappeared.

Victims whose stories were heard included Jihad Eid of Lebanon, who disappeared in 1990; agricultural technician Jonas Burgos of the Philippines who was abducted in Manila in April 2007; and indigenous people’s leader James Moy Balao, missing since 17 September 2008.

The balloons were later simultaneously released, symbolizing the aspiration that their stories should be spread ever wider, and not to be forgotten. The Filipino refugees and Aim for Human Rights were also joined by HIJOS, families of the disappeared in Argentina, and students from Indonesia.

“It was an effective and successful action,” Mitchie Mallorca Saturay, one of the event’s participant, observed. “We need to ensure that the stories of the disappeared are kept alive… We were able to inform a wide public, here in Utrecht, that enforced disappearances is still happening in the Philippines.”

“It is heartwarming to see that the Dutch public and Aim for Human Rights are concerned about the victims of disappearances and the loved ones they left behind,” said Angie Gonzales, member of Filipino Refugees in the Netherlands. “I heard expressions of sympathy and good wishes from quite a number of ordinary passersby today… they understood the barbarity of the abductions and they sympathize with those who are left behind, not knowing if they will ever see their loved ones again.”

Asked why he joined the event, FREN member Boyen Baleva explained, “I know James Balao personally, he is a close friend of mine… I was also a victim of abduction and torture in June 2001 by elements of the 17^th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army. I consider myself lucky that I was surfaced after five days, that I can tell my story myself.”

“It is appalling to hear that not a single official of the Arroyo government has been held accountable for the disappearance of more than 200 persons since 2001,” Baleva continued. “Arroyo officials express satisfaction whenever one of their own is exonerated, as if to say that keeping cases of enforced disappearances unsolved makes them happy.”

Mrs. Editha Burgos, mother of Jonas Burgos and Chairperson of Desaparecidos, is scheduled to visit several countries in Europe in October and November for a speaking tour. She was invited by several human rights organization in the continent to shed more light on the phenomenon of enforced disappearances in the Philippines, especially under the current Gloria Arroyo government.

First Night of Interrogation

Axel Pinpin recites/performs a part of a poem that he made when he was illegaly detained for 28 months after being abducted by unknown armed men later on identified as police and military elements. Axel Pinpin, an agriculturist a poet and an activist, was tortured during his illegal detention.

I’ll be posting more about his story soon.

Only in the Philippines?

I was a part-time tourist in Vienna. Part-time, because I went there for a cultural project that PINAS-FIRST¹ organized. The idea of being a tourist never attracted me.  Sight-seeing and photo opportunities so I can say “I was there” to everyone just do not fit to my interests. But in the end, being a tourist does not have to be that way. It’s not about what you do, but about how you do it.

Young Filipinos once again participated in a cultural workshop, this time focusing in the three groups of islands of the Philippines: Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. As a culmination of the seven-day workshop, they performed a short play that was made out of their own ideas and creativity. Because they were born in Austria, or have been living there since they were very young, they requested the parents to share their experiences in the Philippines to them, so that they can have more ideas for the short play there were making. They wanted to know more than those tourist spots. The rice terraces, the chocolate hills: “Only in the Philippines!”: just like how Filipinos always say it. They wanted to have more insight about things you can find ‘only if the philippines’: drivers texting while driving, students bringing their own chairs to school because they don’t have enough chairs there, and so on. But are these things really to be found ‘only in the Philippines’?

I was present in this sharing. It was amazing to hear their experiences and how those things still happen today. “Only the people in the government change, but not the situation,” said one parent.

One of the discussions was about what a parent called ‘being a foreigner in your own country’. While tourist spots are constantly being visited by foreigners and rich Filipinos, it has not been available for the average local residents. A parent mentioned that a few number of local residents aren’t even aware of that particular tourist spot which lies in their town. A parent also mentioned that the Ifugaos, who once built the famous Banaue Rice Terraces and lived independently with their harvests, are now forced to leave their farms and pose or dance their traditional dance for the tourists so they can earn some money to live by the day. Commercialization of their tradition is now spreading. The access and control of their own land is dwindling. One wonders who gets the benefits of tourism while the residents there who once owned the land are now becoming poorer and poorer.

The idea of that made it more unattractive for me to be a tourist. But I wanted to see Vienna anyway, so we went to Kahlenberg, a mountain where you can get a view of Vienna. Filipinos who have been living in Vienna for a long time took the time to drive us up the mountain. Living in the Netherlands where you have no mountains or hills makes you excited to see the city surrounded with them. It was really wonderful. We stayed there until it was dark enough to see the lights of the city turn on. They shine like diamonds. However, we couldn’t see the panoramic view of the city. In the middle of the place lies a hotel. We had to go to the other side of the hotel to see the other part of the view. It must be a nice hotel. It gives you the view of the city, without obstructions. Surely everybody will enjoy that: everybody who can pay the price of a room there! My companions found themselves reminiscing how everybody could get a full view of the city a couple of years ago, before the hotel was built.

I guess ‘being a foreigner in your own country’ isn’t ‘only in the Philippines’. And I bet much more aren’t.

And I guess being a tourist is not just about taking photographs. You just have to open your eyes beyond the wonders of the world and see the things happening right there. Only then can you really see the place. You can just find the photographs on the internet, but the other things? You can only see them when you’re there yourself. So don’t waste it by only taking photographs of facades without seeing the situation behind it. There’s a bigger thing in the picture.

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¹PINAS-FIRST: Pinoy in Austrian Society for Integrity, Reforms and Social Transformation. www.pinas-first.com