Using SMS to mobilise response to abductions

From TTC: Mobile Advocacy Toolkit Working Meeting wiki

KARAPATAN is the major and most militant human rights alliance in the Philippines. It is made up of human rights institutions and the rights desks of people's organizations, and the regional and provincial human rights bodies all over the country.

To date, KARAPATAN has documented 888 extrajudicial killings and close to 200 enforced disappearances since the start of the Gloria Macapagal Arroyo Administration 2001.

In July 2006, it was reported that elements suspected of being connected to the military had abducted two students, Karen Empeño and Sherlyn Cadapan, from the University of the Philippines, were abducted in Hagonoy, Bulacan. Bulacan is close to the capital city, Manila.

Immediately after being informed youth, students, teachers and other support groups in the National Capital Region held a series of protest actions to demand the release of the disappeared.

Significant number of students were mobilized from UP and other universities through mass “texting” calling for participation in mobilisations in support of the two students. Because of the intense pressure brought by these actions, even UP President Emerlinda Roman wrote to the former Defense Secretary Avelino Cruz, Jr. to ask for an immediate resolution of the case.

A year has passed since the abduction and fact finding missions and witnesses support the allegation that the military holds Empeño and Cadapan prisoner.

Karen Empeño and Sherlyn Cadapan were living with one of the peasant communities in Hagonoy, Bulacan at the time of their disappearance. Empeño was completing her undergraduate thesis.