(This post is an excerpt.)

In this post we’re going to try to glean what little we can from Melissa Roxas’ affidavit, in hopes that this information can reach those who may be able to help. Maybe you good folks can do the same?

Paging the US State Department — get off your asses and get to work; an American has been tortured in a friendly nation. Do something about it… do your goddamned jobs.

So then, parsing the affidavit’s contents. Let’s go to the details that will force immediate questions to be answered.

***

First of all, Roxas is an American citizen, with an American passport. Questions:

What is the US State Department doing about Roxas’ complaint against the Philippine government?

Why does it appear that there is there no consular support from the American embassy for Roxas?

What is the Department of Foreign Affairs doing about the allegations that a citizen of a friendly nation was tortured by state security agents?

Why is there no news of a parallel investigation being conducted by the DFA?

I’m not sure I understand why there doesn’t seem to be any diplomatic concern over the matter. As I recall, there’s been a lot of concern over American prisoners in unfriendly states, as reported in CNN and suchlike — why not even more concern for the torture of Americans in friendly nations?

A cynical friend had an opinion about this: “The reason why the US government doesn’t give a shit about her torture is because Melissa isn’t white. Or black, for that matter. Americans in government tend to have that kind of discrimination — if you’re not white, or if you’re not black, it sucks to be you.”

Now that’s a disappointment, if it is true. I’d like to see that cynicism proven wrong, that the American government will indeed give a damn about Americans, women and men both, whatever their extraction is.

***

Roxas said that from La Paz, Tarlac, where she and John Edward Jandoc and Juanito Carabeo were abducted, it took “more than an hour” to reach their destination. They used a van, so she said, but did not name a make or model in her affidavit.

Assuming that Melissa’s captors drove for about two hours (see, blindfolds tend to disorient and also wreck one’s sense of time), and assuming a travel speed of 40 to 80 km/h, averaging 60 km/h, the radius of possible locations for where Roxas and her companions would have been held and tortured would look something like this:

This radius of travel is a rough estimate. Investigators must feel free to pursue leads beyond the circular boundary. Additional information — for instance, the impressions that Roxas had during the travel (was the road smooth or bumpy, did they travel fast or slow) — could very well narrow down this radius or even redraw it altogether.

***

From Roxas’ affidavit, from her conjectures we can draw this diagram of the layout of the place where she and her companions were detained:

There are quite a number of data points that I personally find interesting. These are:

Roxas said that she heard “planes taking off and landing and it was loud.” It would be interesting to note whether the sound was that of small propeller-driven aircraft (like single-propeller Cessnas and Piper Cubs), large propeller-driven aircraft (like the C-130 Hercules), or that of large jet engines (like the passenger Airbuses or Boeings). If she can identify the sounds — and therefore the type of aircaft — it will become simpler to find out if the place where she was taken was near or at a military airbase, a small civilian airfield, or even a large civilian airport.

Roxas did not mention whether or not she heard the sound of helicopters. This is strange.

Roxas mentioned that she heard the sound of construction activities going on. Thus, the facility or safehouse must be found to have construction or demolition ongoing, or newly-constructed structures, or recently-demolished rubble.

Roxas heard gunfire similar to that of a firing range. Did she hear the sound of pistols or rifles or both? Heck, did she hear heavy ordnance, like artillery and suchlike?

Roxas’ impressions of the area of detention could describe many possibilities, ranging from a military base’s area for officer quarters to a compound adjoining a firing range (could be civilian or military, depending on the sound of the weapons) near an airstrip or airport.

With these impressions, perhaps the statement of 7th Infantry Division chief of staff Col. Leonido Bongcawil, saying that there are 19 airstrips and airfields, as well as several firing ranges, in the whole of Nueva Ecija and not only in Fort Magsaysay, the Army division’s headquarters, is a clever piece of disinformation? Would it not be possible that Roxas was taken to a safehouse near Diosdado Macapagal International Airport? Yes, folks, could Melissa have been taken to a safehouse near Clark? See, the location has to be where aircraft are loud in taking off and landing AND (not OR) a firing range is nearby.

How sinister it would be if her abductors were indeed military men and she was taken to a safehouse in a civilian area.

Perhaps even Armed Forces Chief of Staff Gen. Victor Ibrado’s statement that his feedback from Army chief Lt. Gen. Delfin Bangit “that no such incident happened in Tarlac” is also a clever deception — as the entire incident (except for the abduction itself) need not have taken place in Tarlac.

***

A strange sidelight to Roxas’ story, however… one that might even turn the tables and if true would tell us that Roxas is being used as a pawn in a bigger, even more sinister scheme:

Melissa’s captors took pains to emphasize that she better not speak with Karapatan. Could it be possible that Melissa is being programmed? That Melissa’s US citizenship is the ace in the hole that militants are using to further their ends?

On the other hand, if it was indeed the military did abduct and torture Melissa, such would be more proof that “military intelligence” is an oxymoron among this evil men and women.

***

Let’s hope that Melissa gets justice; let’s put in what help we can.

Human rights and civil and political rights are universal — when someone’s rights are trampled, so are ours.

Let’s keep an eye on this, folks.

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