A daughter's wish for her missing father on Father's Day

Lorena "Aya" Santos, aged 25 from the Philippines, has written an open Father's Day letter to her father, Leo Velasco who 'disappeared', after being abducted last year by soldiers and has not been seen since. Father's Day occurs in June in the Philippines. Mr Velasco is a consultant for the National Democratic Front Philippines (NDFP), in its peace negotiations with the government. The NDFP is the umbrella political wing of a number of left organisations, including the banned Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). Her mother is currently being detained at a military camp. [Abductions and Summary Executions of Suspected Communists]

Since 2001 death squads linked to the Armed Forces of the Philippines have murdered over 900 peasant leaders, unionists, community activists, student leaders and clergy people. Many more have simply 'disappeared' never to be seen again. Brutal counter-insurgency operations, with US backing, supposedly aimed at the CPP and Muslim rebels in the Southern Island of Mindanao, have killed many civilians.

Aya writes to her father: We understand each other how painful it is to long for missing parents. We share the same rage against your abductors and their bosses and this repressive system. We wonder how these people can make our loved ones disappear and can still sleep at night (with their own families beside them, I imagine.)

I know we are all connected because of this tragedy of enforced disappearance, a state practice that should be stopped and never repeated. I feel we are all siblings and that they are also your sons and daughters too. We are the children of the Desaparecidos. We are also the children whose parents have fought for their principles and have served the oppressed. [Aya's Father's Day Letter]