IT was certainly easy for officials of US Customs and Border Protection to deny knowledge of my harrowing experience in the hands of their agents, just as how easily they, together with officers of the US Homeland Security, have denied all my pleas for respect and recognition of my rights during my 28-hour ordeal at the San Francisco International Airport in the US from April 17 to 19, 2018.
But it has not really been that easy for me. In fact, ever since I arrived in the Philippines on April 20, I am confronting the trauma, the sleeplessness, nightmares and anxieties, as I relive the forms of torture they have inflicted on my person. Recently, the statement issued by Jaime Ruiz, a spokesperson of the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on April 25, 2018, has been brought to my attention.
As I read the statement, I feel as if I am experiencing torture all over again, with all the lies stated by the CBP. Let me unequivocally state once again: I was detained arbitrarily, held incommunicado and subjected to physical and mental torture through continuous, intense and grueling interrogation without the benefit of a counsel for twenty eight (28) hours by the United States (US) Homeland Security and the United States Customs and Border Protection officers.
My plea to contact a lawyer was repeatedly denied. All throughout, they accused me of being a terrorist and a communist, allegations which I denied; they maligned my political beliefs as well as my religious practices. They forced me to sign blank sheets of paper, and they coerced me to sign electronically.
My signature was taken under duress and without the benefit of a counsel, and thus any document which they attribute to me do not reflect what transpired during my illegal detention, torture and interrogation.
I was treated inhumanely and was stripped of my human dignity. I signed the documents in my desire that the interrogation and torture would stop, and for me to be able to be sent back home to the Philippines.
It is difficult enough to have experienced these indignities. What pains and angers me more are the bare-faced lies of the CBP officials in their attempt to evade responsibility.
My coming forward to tell my story comes from the sense of obligation and hope that by exacting accountability and demanding justice for what happened to me, such will not happen to any Filipino or Muslim or any person again.
My courage comes from the same conviction of my fellow human rights defenders who believe that activism is never a crime. – Jerome Succor Aba, national chair of Suara Bangsamoro and co-chair of Sandugo Movement of Moro and Indigenous Peoples for Self-Determination
Achieving peace
HAVING read the tortures that Jerome Succor Aba went through during his detention in the home security defense unit in USA, and the nightmares that snatch in his dreams up to this time, I cannot help but feel the pain and anguish at what Jerome suffered from.
I read his narration of the ordeal he went through and learned his background. So he is a social activist, working for the rights of his brothers and sisters Moros and his sympathies to the Lumads, whom he described as a community of people, struggling to fight for their rights to their ancestral lands and opposing the economic plunder done in their areas, in particular, and in Mindanao, in general. So it has now become a practice by those in power to detain, torture, and worst, kill those who fight for their rights!
What boggles my mind are some thoughts/questions: how can our government allow its citizen to be subjected to such a dehumanizing harrowing experience? Was there any attempt to denounce the US arbitrary arrest and torture of Jerome, and recourse to get justice for Jerome? Is not the injustice done to Jerome an injustice to us all — silence or inaction on our part is a soft shameful surrender of our dignity as a people?
The case of Jerome affects me in two levels. First, as a Filipino advocating for human rights, and justice and still uphold that we as a people have fought hard to be free thus earning dignity and respectability! As a compatriot, I empathize with Jerome!
Second level, I am affected as a mother. Jerome must have been loved, nurtured and protected well by his mother and his people that he has turned to be a nationalist, selfless young fellow. My heart bleeds for the pains inflicted on the young brave soul of Jerome. All loving and selfless mothers then must be containing the grief within for the sufferings of their children…
Containing the grief within can only be carried on for a while… the silence will have its end and the grief will have to find a path for peace… and peace that can be meaningful when it is anchored on justice!
As a postscript in the commercialized celebration of Mothers’ Day, the greatest tribute to Inang Bayan… love of country, protection of her people and her sovereignty! –Malou Tiangco, Davao City-based social worker and an artist for peace
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