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Statements of AFAD
Proceedings:
Articles on the Proceedings on the AFAD Leadership Training
Jan. 27 - 31, 2003, Philippines
AFAD Second Congress Resolutions
August 2003
Remembering Munir
AFAD Second Congress
August 26-30, 2003 in Bangkok, Thailand
AFAD’s Mid-Year Report
Ding Zilin's
Message To
Hong Kong
Again, The KONTRAS – IKOHI Office Was Attacked
“ If they are dead, tell us”!
My sons, where are they? |
DISAPPEARED PRIEST,
FR. RUDY ROMANO
IS EVER PRESENT IN OUR HEARTS….
July 11, 1985 – Twenty three-years ago, a man-of-the-cloth, a human rights defender and a very good friend, Fr. Rosaleo Rudy Romano, CSsR was forcibly nabbed in Labangon, Cebu City.
For championing the cause of the little ones of God's flock and linking arms with the wretched of the earth, Fr. Rudy Romano, Vice President of Bayan-Visayas was forcibly taken by the Machiavellian forces of his time at the peak of harsh repression during the tyrannical and rapacious Marcos regime. True to his mission as a Redemptorist father, he caught the ire of the state – several times harassed during mammoth rallies and demonstrations demanding for the ouster of the US-Marcos dictatorship and detained for his fearless advocacy for the cause of the workers, peasants and urban poor of Cebu. A true Christian, he traced and followed the footsteps of his Redeemer by offering his life for the ransom of many.
One of the many desaparecidos of the country, Fr. Rudy Romano remains present in the hearts of the Cebuanos. The marker which the local government of Cebu established in his honor in the very place where he was taken by agents of the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP) is a constant reminder of Fr. Romano's unflinching commitment to the cause of the downtrodden. More importantly, his exemplary deeds which touched the lives of many will never ever be forgotten. Fr. Rudy Romano is ever present in our hearts.
More than a couple of decades, the Philippine government miserably failed to produce the truth about the disappearance of a man whose cherished dream was to attain a better Philippines for his people and for the generations of the future to live in. Instead, the succeeding administrations after Marcos continued to commit cases of enforced disappearances causing untold sufferings both to the
desaparecidos and their families.
Painful indeed it is to note that 23 years after Fr. Rudy's disappearance, the Philippines is one of the Asian countries which is most notorious in their record of enforced disappearances. Failing to sign and ratify the United Nations Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances, the Arroyo administration has instead callously committed more than 190 cases of enforced disappearances. As a matter of fact, the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances requested the present Arroyo administration to invite it to visit the country and conduct investigation. Yet the Philippine government did not even have the decency to reply. This national phenomenon of enforced disappearances has obliged the Supreme Court to utilize its unused power by convening a National Consultative Summit on Extrajudicial Killings and Enforced Disappearances, Seeking for Solutions.
This is definitely not the better Philippines that Fr. Rudy Romano lived and struggled for during his time…. Yet, his good examples and his undying spirit of love for humanity should prick the conscience of the present government to resolve cases of enforced disappearances of the past and prevent future ones from happening.
As we remember Fr. Romano, we continue the good deeds he left behind and we go on with this difficult journey towards a world without
desaparecidos. This is our modest contribution to the realization of a better Philippines, a better Asia and a better world.
Fr. Rudy is ever present in our hearts.
Signed and authenticated by:
| MUGIYANTO |
MARY AILEEN D. BACALSO |
| Chairperson |
Secretary-General |
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