Melissa Roxas, 32, an American citizen of Filipino descent, called for an end to the killings, kidnappings, and incidents of torture in that Asian country. She was abducted last May 19 at around 1:30 p.m. in a village in Tarlac, Philippines, with Juanito Carabeo and John Edward Handoc by at least eight fully-armed, bonnet-clad men riding two motorcycles and a van without plate numbers. Roxas and Carabeo were released by their abductors on May 26.

In a press conference last June 27 at the Echo Park United Methodist Church in Los Angeles, California, Roxas described her abduction and torture by alleged members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and called for justice. Her testimony is streamed live at http://www.kodao.org.

In today’s editorial, the Philippine Daily Enquirer (http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/editorial/view/20090630-213042/Search-for-truth) says: “It is good that Filipino-American Melissa Roxas, a member of the US chapter of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan), has announced that she would sue military agents who tortured her almost to the point of death. Her lawyer said she would seek damages in a US federal court against the Philippine government and his group would also file a complaint before the US State Department and the United Nations... But more than just the payment of damages to Roxas, the cases she filed should result in the revelation of the truth about not just her complaint but also about the 1,010 cases of torture, the 1,013 victims of extrajudicial killings and the 202 victims of enforced disappearances since President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo came into power in 2001.”

Last year, Edith Burgos (photo), 64-year old mother of missing human rights activist Jonas “Jay Jay” Burgos, was also in LA in the course of a seven-city US speaking tour to raise awareness of the plight of Philippine "Desaparecidos" or forced disappearances.

The 37-year-old Jonas, an agriculture graduate and a trainer of the Alyansa ng Magbubukid sa Bulacan (Alliance of Farmers in Bulacan), was having lunch at a restaurant inside a mall in Quezon City on April 28, 2007, when four armed men and a woman accosted and forcibly loaded him in a maroon van with Plate No. TAB 194. Subsequent police investigation indicated that the plate number belongs to a vehicle impounded inside the camp of the 56^th Infantry Battalion of the Armed Forces of the Philippines in Bulacan, Mrs. Burgos said. The widow of veteran newspaperman Jose Burgos lamented the brazenness of the abduction and claimed that the Philippine government was giving her the run-around in her search for truth and justice.