ILOILO City – Two Ilonggos were included in the Anti-Terrorism Council’s (ATC) roster of individuals it tagged as “terrorists” – Ma. Concepcion Araneta-Bocala and Tomas Dominado Jr.
Bocala is a peace consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) while Domindo is an activist. The ATC said both are affiliated with the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) which the government has classified a terrorist organization.
The whereabouts of Bocala and Dominado are unknown.
In Resolution No. 17 (2021) released yesterday, the ATC lumped Bocala and Dominado alongside CPP founder Jose Maria “Joma” Sison and wife Julieta Sison and 15 others alleged officials and members of the CPP.
The ATC branded them “terrorists” for allegedly “planning, preparing, facilitating, conspiring, and inciting the commission of terrorism and recruitment to and membership in a terrorist organization or a group organized for the purpose of engaging in terrorism.”
BOCALA
In military circles, Bocala is known as a ranking communist official in Panay Island.
In the early 1970s, she was a student activist at the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City. When martial law was declared in 1902, she joined the New People’s Army (NPA) – the armed wing of the CPP – to fight the Marcos dictatorship.
In Aug. 1, 2015, Bocala was arrested at a safe house in Barangay Calumpang, Molo district here for murder and rebellion charges in Aklan and Antique provinces.
That time, Bocala had a bounty of P7.8 million.
So she could join the peace talks the following year, three local courts in Aklan, Iloilo and Antique granted the urgent motions for her release on bail.
Bocala was allowed to post a bail bond of P100,000 for the charges of violation of Republic Act (RA) 10591 (possession of unlicensed firearm) and RA 9516 (possession of explosives) both filed at the Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 23 in Iloilo City.
She also shelled out P100,000 bail for each charge of rebellion filed at RTC branches 25 and13 in Culasi, Antique, and another P100,000 for a murder charge before RTC Branch 2 in Kalibo, Aklan.
As peace talks’ consultant of the CPP-NDFP in Oslo, Norway, she handled a committee dealing with socioeconomic reforms.
After President Rodrigo Duterte terminated the negotiations 2017, Bocala was believed to have sought the help of comrades to hide her.
According to Major Cenon Pancito III, spokesperson of the Philippine Army’s 3rd Infantry Division based in Tapaz, Capiz, the Southern Front Committee (SFC) of the NPA took Bocala in.
The SFC operates in the mountainous towns of Igbaras, Miag-ao and Tubungan in the 1st District of Iloilo and parts of Antique.
DOMINADO
Meanwhile, a source confirmed that Tomas Dominado is the husband of missing Ilongga activist Maria Luisa Posa-Dominado who was abducted by armed men 14 years ago (2007) in Oton, Iloilo during the administration of then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
Tomas and Luisa are both political activists and former political detainees.
In 2018, Maria Luisa was also among the persons included in the Duterte administration’s so-called list of “terrorists”.
Tomas protested. He said such branding from the government itself was proof that state forces were behind her abduction.
“They could never hide from the fact they were the perpetrators of the abduction even with alternative facts,” said Tomas in a 2018 interview.
Maria Luisa, together with fellow activists Nilo Arado and Jose Ely Garachico, were on their way back to Iloilo City from Antique when their vehicle was ambushed on April 12, 2007 in Barangay Cabanbanan, Oton, Iloilo.
While Maria Luisa and Arado were forcibly taken away by armed men, Garachico who was wounded on the neck was left behind.
Maria Luisa was then the spokesperson for Panay of the Samahan ng mga Ex-detainees Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto (Selda) while Arado was the chairperson of Paghugpong sang mga Mangunguma sa Panay kag Guimaras (Pamanggas).
Garachico was then the secretary-general of the human rights alliance Karapatan-Panay.
Tomas squarely blamed the Arroyo administration for the abduction.
“For all the sacrifices and dangers that my wife and I had gone through in our 15 years of struggle against the Marcos dictatorship, we came out much alive and active to fight again, this time against the thinly-veiled dictatorship of the Arroyo regime,” he said in a statement released after his wife’s abduction.
Over a decade after the abduction, the fates of Maria Luisa and Arado remain uncertain. But family and friends remain hopeful the activists are still alive but they are also managing their expectations.
“I am very satisfied with the relentless and massive efforts of Luisa’s organizations, family, and friends in the furtherance of her return and for the attainment of justice, even under threat of fascist attacks and wherever events may lead to. I am sure that sooner or later, we will succeed in seeing to it that justice will prevail. For, after all, this is what all our life’s efforts (mine, Luisa’s and a lot of other activists and leaders) are aimed at-to have a people conscious, organized, and powerful enough to exact justice and build peace,” said Tomas in 2007.
DESIGNATION RESO
The ATC terrorist-tagging resolution was signed by Executive Secretary ATC chairperson Salvador Medialdea and ATC vice chairperson Hermogenes Esperon on April 20 and published in newspapers yesterday.
“Based on verified and validated information, the ATC found probable cause, as defined in the Anti-Terrorism Act, warranting the designation of the following central committee members of the CPP… for planning, preparing, facilitating, conspiring, and inciting the commission of terrorism and recruitment to and membership in a terrorist organization or a group organized for the purpose of engaging in terrorism,” part of the resolution read.
It specified that the said 19 personalities, who are all allegedly members of the CPP’s Central Committee, violated Sections 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 of the Anti-Terrorism Act.
Other personalities tagged as terrorists were Vicente Ladlad, Jorge Madlos, Adelberto Silva, Rey Casambre, Rafael Baylosis, and Wilma and Benito Tiamzon.
“The Central Committee is the highest decision- and policy-making body of the CPP and also leads and commands the NPA, its main weapon in attaining the Party’s goal of overthrowing the duly elected government by seizing and consolidating political power through violent means,” the ATC said./PN
