Who is sherlyn cadapan

Photo by Geloy Concepcion. Linda was proud when her daughter Sherlyn went off to college at the University of the Philippines. Sherlyn was a sprinter, on a varsity scholarship; the pretty, dimpled girl who brought home gold medals and prize money to her mother.

Once, Sherlyn wrote her a letter, explaining why she had to work among the masses. It was a treatise on rising fuel prices and students deprived of education, about land stolen from peasants and the abuses of the Arroyo government.

Linda told her to find work. Help the poor all you want, she told Sherlyn, but stay away from the activists. On June 25, , Sherlyn called home to say she was pregnant. She thought she was already two months along. She did not speak to her mother, and her mother did not ask. It was 4 in the afternoon on June 26, , when Linda found out her daughter was missing.

It was hours later when she knew for sure. Things like this did not happen, not to her daughter, not to anyone. She gave up her job; her husband lost his. His employers, she said, were afraid of harassment from the military. For 8 years Linda Cadapan traveled from Laguna nearly every day, cadging cab rides with reporters, taking tricycles and buses and the occasional hired jeep, the bottle of water in the voluminous black bag. In the beginning, Linda was too proud to beg for the money it cost to travel into the city.

Sherlyn needed her, and Linda would not let her down. She went from court to court, interview to interview. She stood on the side of the road and shouted into a bullhorn under the waving flags of left-wing progressives. She found her way into hospital morgues to look into the faces of unidentified corpses. Palparan has admitted two female communist rebels had been arrested in Hagonoy, Bulacan, but denies the two are Karen and Sherlyn.

He says the left has manufactured all evidence, in an attempt to smear the success of his campaign to eradicate the evils of communism. He is innocent, his men are innocent, and he will allow justice to take its course. When it did, on December of , his men surrendered, and Palparan disappeared. She sat quiet in the jeep, surrounded by the familiar accouterments of protest — the Palparan effigy, the flags, the pamphlets, the posters.

Jovito Palparan Jr. I was aware that every fiber in my body was trembling, everyone in the room was moving, the media trying to get pictures, the soldiers tightening their circle around Palparan, the mothers and victims crying, hugging and praying, the lawyers trying to get a copy of the ruling, my daughter shielding me from the pushing crowd, other human rights defenders trying to get us out of harm's way.

Then a voice cut across the room, trying to get everyone's attention. Even as the sentence was read the voice continued, louder and louder.

You be ready. You are stupid, judge. You are a stupid, senseless fool. I looked up and got a glimpse of who was shouting. His voice had the effect of sending chills down my spine. It was loud, intended to scare, but his eyes could not disguise the fear.

I tremble as I recall the look of hate and fear. There was rage and so much anger. When we are suddenly confronted with the real truth without warning, we react in the most authentic manner. With no time to put on our masks, our real selves are exposed. The mothers stood with dignity in spite of the pain. They could only utter prayers of thanks. But the guilty screamed out expletives, curses and threats, so unbecoming an officer.

The truth is pronounced. The question is: How does one return the stolen years, the stolen dreams, the stolen life? The Supreme Court resolved that Jonas, my son, was taken by the military and ordered the Philippine army to return him. That was more than four years ago. Jonas is still missing. Gunmen believed to be soldiers abducted her son Jonas Burgos in Manila in April He is still missing. Support UCA News…. For the last 40 years , UCA News has remained the most trusted and independent Catholic news and information service from Asia.

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