Las Mariposas

Today, November 25 is International Women’s Day of Protest to End Violence Against Women. It also marks the death anniversary of the Dominican Republic’s “Las Mariposas”— Mirabal sisters, Teresa, Patria and Minerva, who, in their determined struggle against the Trujillo dictatorship inspired so many others.

In the hands of the dictator, they faced persecution. Their families endured the separation and the constant surveillance, threats and harassment. Minerva, Patria and Teresa were abused, abducted, tortured, detained, executed.

There are Mariposas now as there are Mariposas then.

For three straight days I have been looking at photos of this country’s modern-day Mariposas. Gabriela Women’s Party will be putting forward the issue of women Desaparecidos under the Arroyo regime. The process is haunting. It evokes feelings of sadness, anger, rage.

There are thirty of them as of last count, among them, Juliet Fernandez who I have known in my budding years as a student-activist with Gabriela-Youth. Juliet being Gabriela-Youth secretary general at that time. She was part of The Catalyst, the publication of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines and the College Editors Guild of the Philippines. She eventually opted to affiliate with Amihan the national federation of peasant women and Pamalakaya, organizing fisherfolks in Samar.

Last May 11, Juliet and her husband, Manuel Pajarito was abducted by suspected members of the Philippine Army’s 62nd InfantryBatallion. Efforts to find Juliet and Manuel have led members of a fact finding team from one military camp to another.

S ix months after, we still have no news of Juliet or her husband.

Juliet joins the ranks of Luisa Posa-Dominado, Sherlyn Cadapan, Karen Empeno (who, as of recent developments, were raped and tortured according to a witness) and a host of others who were abducted, tortured, summarily executed.

They are the modern-day Mariposas of this country.

This is a regime that attempts to quell dissent by making women and men vanish. It is an attempt that fails time and again. The legacy of Mariposas live on.