By Tetch Torres (INQ7.net)
Last updated 05:31pm (Mla time) 07/17/2006
PARENTS of two missing students from the University of the Philippines (UP) have asked the Supreme Court to compel the military, which several quarters believe to be behind the disappearances, to release the students from custody.
In a Petition for Habeas Corpus, Erlinda and Asher Cadapan and Concepcion Empeño said Major Generals Romeo Tolentino and Jovito Palparan; Lieutenant Colonel Rogelio Boac, a Lieutenant Samson and a certain Arnel Enriquez should release Sherlyn Cadapan, Karen Empeño and Manuel Merino from their custody.
"(We) have exhausted all efforts legally available and that there is no other plain, speedy and adequate remedy to protect the rights of the victims except by this application for a Writ of Habeas Corpus," the parents said.
Sherlyn Cadapan, Karen Empeño and Manuel Merino were allegedly taken by elements of the Philippine Army from a house in Hagonoy, Bulacan last June 26.
The parents point to troops of the 56th Infantry Battalion in Bulacan as the ones who allegedly abducted the three.
They said witnesses William and Wilfredo Ramos saw how the military tied up and led the three to a stainless jeep with plate number 597.
"The military camp which was usually open to accept them as visitors was now closed and they were not allowed inside," the petitioners said.
They added that a barbecue vendor outside the camp asked them who it was they were looking for: "'Yong mga babae ba (Are you looking for the women)?"
When they replied, "Yes," the vendor "did not say a word."
They also cited Palparan's statement that the two girls were not students anymore.
Such statements, they said, meant Palparan knows the whereabouts of the three missing activists.
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