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Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Jan.18, 1996
issue of Workers World newspaper
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A health worker has disappeared in the Philippines in circumstances that point to Army involvement and political repression.
According to the group Task Force Detainees of the Philippines, Noel Campilan, 27, a worker with the Center for Community Health Services and Development in Tagum, Davao del Norte, Philippines, has been missing since April 28, 1995.
Campilan's duties at the health center included training community health workers in the use of herbal medicines and acupuncture. His troubles began when a friend named Sonny Batingal borrowed a motorcycle from the center. The motorcycle later turned up at the headquarters of the 602nd Brigade of the 6th Infantry Division of the Philippine Army.
Officers of the 602nd claimed the motorcycle was obtained from an alleged member of the New People's Army. The NPA is the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines.
The health center sent Noel Campilan to retrieve the motorcycle. Officers of the 602nd Brigade denied having the vehicle and said it was being used by the NPA. Noel filed a complaint and left. He later contacted his mother and told her that he was being followed.
A few days later, following a thorough investigation of the homes of Campilan and his relatives, friends and co- workers notified police that he had disappeared. When last seen, Campilan had been riding another of the center's motorcycles.
The police put the incident down on their blotter as a "qualified theft," treating Campilan as a suspect rather than a victim.
There is hope in this case. In September, Campilan was seen by an old friend in the company of "two burly, military-looking men." The sighting was in Tagum, the new location of the 602nd Brigade.
Since Campilan's disappearance, the staff of the health center has shrunk from 40 to only three active members. The other workers fear they, too, could be abducted. Because the center is a grassroots organization that serves a very poor community, it is politically suspect in the eyes of the state.
The Philippine government is now headed by President Fidel Ramos, a former general who was chief of staff during the Marcos regime. While the managed downfall of Ferdinand Marcos was hailed in the United States as a great turn to democracy for the Philippines, little has changed for the vast majority of the people.
They continue to work in the fields and factories for starvation wages. Philippine labor enriches U.S. corporations and the local elite that have served them ever since the United States took the Philippines from Spain after the Spanish-American War of 1898.
Campilan's family and several community-based organizations--including the health center, the task force, Health Alliance for Democracy, BAYAN, and Gabriela of Davao del Norte--are asking the public to write, call or fax President Ramos to demand the safe return of Noel Campilan. Ramos is at Malacanang Palace, 1001 Manila, Philippines, fax number (632) 742-1641.
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