Families of desaparecidos marked the International Day of the Disappeared August 30 with deeper concern and sadness as the list has become longer in the last four years of the Duterte Administration.
Erlinda Cadapan, Desaparecidos chairperson whose daughter Sherlyn has been missing since June 26, 2006, expressed the fear that the newly signed Anti-Terrorism Act “will serve as a fertile ground for increased cases of enforced disappearance.”
“We fear that Duterte’s terror law will enable State forces to resort to extraordinary measures such as abductions and enforced disappearances like what they did to my daughter to instill fear on its critics and activists as the government spins out of control because of the pandemic and the ailing economy,” Cadapan said during a virtual forum organized by Karapatan, an alliance for the advancement of people’s rights.
