Delgado said he was also dismayed over how authorities ignored the Pitao family’s complaints. Prior to Rebelyn’s death, members of the family were constantly followed around by military intelligence men.
Delgado pointed out that Rebelyn was going home to the same house where her father, Leoncio Pitao known as Kumander Parago of the NPA, was taken by military authorities in a raid in November 1999.
Delgado said the authorities deliberately turned a blind eye on this important detail. “The way we see it, they deliberately ignored these leads.” He said authorities should have followed these lead if they were really serious in resolving the case.
Government released Parago from detention late in 2001, a step to restore confidence in the stalled peace talks with the Reds. But Parago returned to the hills to renew his fight against the government; against warnings that his family would suffer the backlash of his actions.
Rebelyn would have been a regular school teacher this year had she lived. On March 5, her body was found in a shallow canal in Carmen, Panabo City, about an hour’s ride away from the place where she was abducted on her way to their house in Bago Gallera village in Toril.
“I miss my daughter. She dared to dream despite the odds,” Evangeline said. “I could not bring her back to life, but at least, justice should have been served on her brutal death,” she added.
Evangeline Pitao speaks about her daughter’s death during a rally at Rizal Park a year after the killing. (contributed photo)
The image of a little girl, walking on the narrow path of a makeshift bridge in Isla Verde (a bayside slum in Davao), carrying a chair on her head on her way to kindergarten school haunts Evangeline’s mind.
“Rebelyn had always wanted to become a teacher,” she said. “She kept faith that we can lead normal lives because we are civilians and should be spared by the enemies of her father’s war.”
Her daughter’s death jolted the family back to the reality that no one is spared in the war that their father Kumander Parago of the NPA is fighting. The international humanitarian laws and the Philippine laws supposedly contained provisions that spare civilians from the hostilities of warring forces.
“Rebelyn could be her father’s daughter, but she is no fair game,” Evangeline said. She has lately turned to joining street protests for succor. Rebelyn’s death had changed everything,” she said.
Since Rebelyn’s death they had transferred house four times. Lately, a military man has occupied the house near where they are staying.
The military’s hunt for Kumander Parago also goes on.
Col. Domingo Tutaan Jr., deputy commander of the Philippine Army’s 1003rd Brigade, earlier claimed that a bounty of P5 million have been put on the head of Kumander Parago.
But this has not prevented Evangeline from being visible in street protests.
“I know I could no longer bring my daughter back to life and I have lost faith in this government to bring justice to my child,” she said. “But just so others whose rights have been violated will also find the courage to stand up, I will continue doing this,” she said in a picket outside Camp Panacan on the first year after her daughter’s death. Camp Panacan is the headquarters of the Philippine Army’s 10th Infantry Division.
No murder charges have been filed in connection with Rebelyn’s death.
Karapatan’s Delgado said the human rights group is limited in their capacity to pursue an investigation, much less hold a witness in custody.
But they are hoping that the investigation initiated by the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) in April last year will amount to something.
