MANILA, Philippines – Environmental activist Rowena “Owen” Dasig has been discovered secure after two months of disappearance, following what her legal professionals described as an irregular launch from detention.
Dasig appeared together with her legal professionals on Tuesday, October 22, and is present process a debriefing.
“Owen has lastly been discovered and we’re happy to listen to that she is at the moment secure. She has reached out to us and knowledgeable us that she stays dedicated to her advocacies for the surroundings and human rights,” mentioned her counsels, veteran human rights legal professionals Tony La Viña and Carlos Zarate.
Dasig and fellow environmental activist Miguela Peniero had been acquitted by a courtroom in Gumaca, Quezon in August this 12 months. However she was not instantly freed – a course of that her legal professionals had scored as “illegal.” When she was lastly scheduled for launch, Dasig went lacking, sparking a two-month marketing campaign to floor her.
Dasig and Peniero had been arrested in Atimonan, Quezon, in July 2023 whereas conducting analysis in a liquefied pure gasoline plant, in line with her counsels.
Considered one of Dasig’s paralegals whom Rappler talked to however requested to not be named for safety causes, mentioned that the warden of the feminine dormitory of the Lucena Metropolis District Jail (LCDJ) was unreachable on the day of the activist’s scheduled launch.
Dasig’s legal professionals claimed that the delay in her launch from detention was in violation of Article 126 of the Revised Penal Code, which penalizes public officers who “unduly delay the service of the discover of such order to mentioned prisoner or the proceedings upon any petition for the liberation of such individual.”
La Viña instructed Rappler on Wednesday, October 23, that they “plan to file the suitable expenses in a while.” La Viña mentioned that the jail officers haven’t offered them any rationalization. “We wrote letters and known as them a number of occasions,” he mentioned
“[They eventually released her] with out informing her legal professionals and authorized workforce who was ready to select her up. She was launched and delivered to Bicol with out her consent. Thankfully, she was capable of contact us after two months and we organized to have her come again to Manila safely,” La Viña mentioned.
“Strictly talking, that is stil an enforced disappearance due to the position of the state in her unconsented restraint of liberty,” he added.
Rappler tried to get in contact with the LCDJ Feminine Dormitory by the standard communication traces to rearrange visits, however they didn’t reply to that message.
Life below detention
Dasig had been red-tagged and terror-tagged by the Philippine military. Dasig and Peniero had been charged with the non-bailable offense of unlawful possession of firearms, ammunition, and explosives, the standard
“frequent crime” slapped in opposition to activists.
Charging activists of frequent crimes had been a development particularly after the repeal of the legislation outlawing communism in 1992.
Dasig was tagged as a “high-risk” individual disadvantaged of liberty (PDL) throughout detention, mentioned her legal professionals. A paralegal, who additionally requested to not be named, mentioned it took them eight months to lastly speak to Dasig after her arrest in July 2023.
Whereas detained, Dasig was the supply of power to the activists serving to her, mentioned one paralegal.
“Minsan medyo hopeless ka na kasi paralegal ka lang. Tapos siya pa ang magpapadala sa iyo ng message. Siya pa ang magdadala sa iyo ng ganoong power,” a paralegal mentioned.
(Typically you turn into hopeless since you are only a paralegal. Then she’ll even be the one to ship you a message. She’ll even be one who will carry you that form of power.)
Music lover, public well being advocate
Her buddies describe Dasig as a heat one that would even cross the road to present a buddy a hug.
Dasig is a Ok-pop fan, and an Aespa stan. A music lover, Dasig enjoys listening to Phoebe Bridgers.
She took up medical know-how in school, and it was throughout that point that she developed an advocacy for public well being. It was in the course of the peak of the pandemic when Dasig determined to hitch the progressive group Anakbayan.
As a part of an organized group, Dasig was a primary respondent in well being and environmental missions.
When a diarrhea outbreak affected the Dumagat tribe in Quezon, Dasig was among the many first folks to reply.
“Ang hindi ko makakalimutan sa mga panahong nakasama ko siya ay mga paglubog mismo sa komunidad. Tulad noong Tulaog pageant 2022, na kitang-kita ang kaniyang dedikasyon para matulungan ang mga Dumagat at Remontado,” her buddy mentioned.
(What I can’t overlook in the course of the occasions that I used to be together with her had been our full immersion in communities. Similar to in Tulaog pageant 2022, the place her dedication to assist the Dumagats and Remontados was very obvious.)
Earlier than she grew to become a political prisoner herself, Dasig was a paralegal, too. She was a paralegal within the case of Daisy Macapanpan, an environmental defender who was arrested on June 11, 2022, for main the opposition in opposition to the development of the Ahunan Pumped-Storage Hydropower Challenge. The mission will have an effect on the Pakil, Laguna, portion of the Sierra Madre mountain vary.
“[Dasig was] so critical, centered, and talked in a really calm method. Composure by no means faltered within the face of many individuals,” mentioned a paralegal who labored together with her. “First-timer ako [noon]. It brings power sa mga kasama mo na naninibago at natatakot. To see somebody like Owen, na quite simple lang, ang dala lang niya forwards and backwards ay isang simpleng tote bag na puro case information.”
(I used to be a first-timer again then. People who find themselves newbies and scared draw power from seeing somebody like Owen who’s quite simple, who would solely carry a tote bag stuffed with case information forwards and backwards.) – With reviews from Lian Buan/Rappler.com
Dean Gabriel Amarillas, a third 12 months Philippine research scholar in UP Diliman, is a Rappler intern. Study extra about Rappler’s internship program right here.
