Never Forget

Dr. Aurora Parong is a doctor and human rights defender who has dedicated her life to community work and bringing justice to survivors of Martial Law. Hailing from UP Diliman and the UP College of Medicine, she first joined the Klinika Ng Bayan where she was dispatched on medical missions in communities around the Philippines. In 1982, she put up her own clinic in Nueva Vizcaya where she was taken by the military after being accused of tending to members of the New People’s Army. She was detained for one and a half years.

She has continuously carried the torch for victims and survivors of human rights abuses by working with several groups such as the Medical Action Group, Task Force Detainees of the Philippines, the Philippine Coalition for the International Criminal Court, Amnesty International Philippines, and the Human Rights Victims Claims Board. Currently, she assists families of victims of extrajudicial killings in Duterte’s bloody drug war in their demand for justice. She also takes action towards health rights, climate justice, and the fight against disinformation. Starting September 2022, she will be teaching at a College of Medicine in Nueva Vizcaya.

Edicio de La Torre is an artist, activist, and former priest from Mindoro. First ordained in 1968, he took up community work to help farmers and the urban poor. During Martial Law, he was imprisoned twice with charges of conspiracy and proposal to commit rebellion. In 1986, he was finally deemed innocent in court and released.

While Ed considers himself retired, he is currently the President of the Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement, Vice Chair of the Bantayog ng mga Bayani Foundation, and a board member of other NGOs. Ed is also interested in visual arts, cognitive psychology, lifelong learning, participatory local governance, and sustainable rural development. Creative by heart, he writes and creates artworks in different mediums.

Cris Palabay lives a life of activism and advocacy. In 1971, he moved from La Union to Manila to study at the Philippine School of Business Administration in the midst of a lively period of student activism in Manila. During Martial Law, his two older brothers were killed while he and his other family members were arrested by association. Cris finished his Master’s Degree in Public Management at the Ateneo de Manila University and took a short International Course on Urban Economic Planning at Galilee College. He then became active in the local government of La Union as a former member of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan La Union and former Municipal Administrator of Bauang.

Currently, he is the Chairperson of the Koalisyon Isalbar Ti Pintas Ti La Union (Save the Beauty of La Union Coalition), an aggrupation that advocates for the protection of the environment. He also actively campaigned during the 2022 Philippine elections as a member of the Robredo People’s Council/1Sambayanan-ELYU, which has now turned into a volunteer group for good governance and environment.

Hilda Narciso is a teacher and healer. In 1970, she graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Education, as well as a Major in Math and Minor in Science. During Martial Law when she was a church worker, she was forcefully taken to a military safehouse where she survived sexual abuses by members of the military.

In 1989, Hilda took up a short course in Copenhagen University on Anatomy and Physiology with special training on Stress Tension Reduction Therapy. She also studied a versatile range of medicine and healing such as traditional Chinese medicine, anthroposophic medicine, Reiki, energy healing, and more. Today, she keeps busy with farm work and wants to educate people who are interested in healing. She also continues her studies on healing and helping the youth, out-of-school youth, and indigenous people through psychosocial workshops.

Mariam Kanda is a nurse and the youngest in her family. Newlywed at 14 through an arranged marriage, she survived the Palimbang Massacre of 1974 where she was boarded on a naval ship. After losing her husband and dearly beloved father, she became solitary, keeping quiet about her pain and anger for decades. Being found by the Human Rights Violations Victims’ Memorial Commission in 2018 was a decisive moment: she would share her story of surviving the massacre for the first time in 44 years.

After taking up nursing, Mariam became a public servant as the Municipal Councilor of Palimbang and a member of the Lady Legislators League of the Philippine National Office. Today, she is the Rural Health Unit Administrator of Palimbang’s Local Government Unit. She also enjoys cooking and singing. She continues to fiercely seek justice for the victims of the Palimbang Massacre after years of their stories being swept aside.

Madaki Kanda is a farmer from Palimbang. At 14 years old, he and his father were rounded up by soldiers and taken to the Tacbil Mosque where many of the killings during the Palimbang Massacre took place. They were later separated, with his father left behind and killed at the mosque.

He enjoys farming and driving. Like his cousin Mariam Kanda, it took him decades to build the strength to recount and share his painful memories of the massacre. He believes his story must be told so people learn from it and prevent the past from happening again.

Mohammad Kanda is a teacher in Palimbang. Only 13 years old when the Palimbang Massacre happened in 1974, he was brought inside the Tacbil Mosque where he saw firsthand how the older male members of their community were taken outside and killed in groups.

Today, he is a member of the Madaris Volunteer Program: a network that aims to improve the quality of education in the Bangsamoro areas of the Philippines. He also teaches Arabic. Knowing the sacrifices his family made and the hardships they experienced after the massacre, he seeks justice in the form of their material losses being returned.

Nemia Cabe was only seven years old when she survived the 1981 Las Navas massacre in Northern Samar. Her father and two sisters were killed while she, her mother, and her little sister survived. The gunmen who killed her family members and other residents remain unidentified today.

Nemia is married with children. She tells and remembers the story of how she survived the massacre so that such atrocities don’t happen again.

Enrequita Toling, a survivor of the 1981 Las Navas Massacre, was 19 years old when the killings took place in Northern Samar. Her husband was murdered, leaving her a single mother to her 3-month-old daughter.

Today, Enrequita is one of the only survivors of the massacre left living in her barrio. Despite the presence of the military and a palpable trauma from what happened during Martial Law, she fearlessly calls the place her home. She hopes that the violence they went through, which brought them into hardships they still experience today, doesn’t happen again.

Cecilia Viernes-Nuñez is the daughter of Puring Viernes and a survivor of a family massacre in 1984. She was only 13 years old when members of the military arrived and gunned down her home one night in Carmen Jimenez, Misamis Occidental. While she and her mother survived, she lost her younger siblings and father.

Cecil went on to work with the Task Force Detainees of the Philippines, Amaya Lay Foundation, Mactan Island Multipurpose Cooperative, and Cordova Multipurpose Cooperative. She was also a member of Oroquieta City’s Regional Trial Court. Self-employed today, she enjoys attending cooperative activities and gardening.

Purificacion Viernes is the mother of Cecil Viernes-Nuñez and a survivor of a family massacre in Carmen Jimenez, Misamis Occidental. As a devout and active member of the Church during Martial Law, members of the military accused her of learning teachings from the New People’s Army. On one night in 1984, they ambushed her home and gunned it down, killing her husband and other children. She and Cecil were the only ones from the family to survive.

Today, Nanay Puring continues her church activities and enjoys coloring.