Part Two
THOSE were the last three years of a dictator. Those were the best of time for Bernardo B. Itucal Jr.—until he was arrested.
Itucal entered the activism scene relatively late, when then-President Ferdinand E. Marcos’s power was already waning. However, for someone who just finished secondary school that time, his own baptism of fire came early on.
Shortly after finishing high school, Itucal was hired by the Department of Health in 1983 as a general maintenance worker, where his father was a regular government employee.
At the early morning of August 21 that year, Itucal was surprised to learn that many of his fellow workers filed leaves of absence to join a protest rally. He was told an important political figure was killed, at the orders of the sitting president that time, many believed.
He joined that protest action and the following street demonstrations calling for justice to
the assassination of Benigno S. Aquino III.
After joining co-workers for several times in similar protest activities, Itucal joined the Samahan ng Kabataang Nagkakaisa (SKL, the association of united youth). The SKL was the Caloocan City chapter of the militant League of Filipino Students (LFS).
United youth
ACCORDING to Itucal, the LFS that time not only organized school-based young people but also community-based and out-of-school of youth. He said the SKL was organized mainly to divert their attention from using illegal drugs.
“Drug addiction is not a recent phenomenon,” Itucal said. “During my younger years, young people use a variety of cough syrup.”
He added that those who can afford buy marijuana and valium, now known as Diazepam and a sleep inducer but is addictive if abused.
The SKL was later transformed into Kadena (chain), a community-based national union of youth organizations led by the LFS. It was under these organizations that Itucal sustained his activism throughout the remaining years of Marcos and until the late dictator was toppled by a popular revolt. Itucal’s participation in anti-government activities continued even after Corazon C. Aquino became the country’s first woman president.
Ironically, while Itucal evaded capture during the years considered darkest by many, it was during the liberal government of Mrs. Aquino when he was captured, tortured and imprisoned.
Torture
ALTHOUGH considered more conventional, Itucal said his experience was no less a painful torture.
He was subjected to water therapy, where two military personnel were ordered to stand on his body facing opposite directions. One was pouring water over his nostril, while the other is making sure his lower body would be incapable of doing anything. To inflict more pain, the water was later laced with chili pepper.
According to Itucal, it was then he realized hell was real.
After his release, he undertook some research and found the active ingredient of chili pepper, capsaicin, produces burning sensation upon contact on human tissue. It was that ingredient that slowly traveled to the inner linings of my nostrils, almost bypassing the blood brain barrier, according to Itucal.
“The pain was indescribable,” he said in Tagalog.
The worst part of it was that he was not even asked a single question or made to confess anything about his “political work.”
It was as if torture had become “a given” or a “norm” to any political activist captured, Itucal said.
On the other hand, it was also the time when political activists were starting to be charged with regular “criminal offenses” when political activism ceased to be illegal after Ramos declared communism no longer unlawful.
“If there are no actual criminal offenses, then the police or arresting officer would invariably
plant evidence to effect a charge,” Itucal said.
Recapture
ITUCAL was imprisoned for five years on a charge of two cases of murder.
The cases did not prosper for lack of substance and evidence, he said.
Itucal recalled that after Mrs. Aquino took power, high profile political prisoners from the Communist Party of Philippines (CPP) were freed. One of them was Jose Maria Sison, who is now exchanging tirades with President Duterte.
Mrs. Aquino also initiated peace talks with the communist rebels but negotiations bogged down and ultimately failed. According to Itucal, talks stopped after police and military shot at protesting farmers near Malacanan and led to the death of 13.
This is now known as the Mendiola Massacre.
Activists who remained in the country were recaptured, including those still actively resisting the political system. Itucal was one of them.
Release
DURING the presidency of Fidel Ramos, Itucal was freed. Prior to his eventual freedom, several nongovernment organizations tirelessly helped him to make his imprisonment more bearable, and provided him all legal assistance and representations.
Some of these groups included the Task Force Detainees of the Philippines (TFDP) and Balay Rehabilitation Center (Balay).
After being freed In 1993, Itucal joined the TFDP as a volunteer and helped in preparing documents for all victims and survivors of Marcos’s Martial Law.
With many of the Martial Law victims able to file compensation from some of the funds recovered from Marcos’s ill-gotten wealth, Itucal joined Balay early this year.
The group’s members and volunteers, like Itucal, still work to represent political detainees at the many levels of the country’s complex justice and penal system.
Citing data from Balay, Itucal said there about 450 to 500 political prisoners still languishing in various jails nationwide.
To be concluded