While the situation in Thailand is certainly grave with prominent activists who have gone missing for as long as 15 years, it would not be fair to speak about enforced disappearances without mentioning another ASEAN member country: the Philippines. The families of the disappeared have received neither compensation or redress of any kind. After a series of abductions by terrorist groups, Zamboanga is regarded as the most dangerous place in the Philippines for locals and foreigners alike.

In 2012, the 15th president of the Philippines, Benigno Aquino III signed into law the Anti-Enforced or Involuntary Disappearance Act which makes the crime of enforced disappearance punishable by life imprisonment.A Philippine-based news portal quoted Nilda Sevilla, co-chairperson of FIND, as saying that the law passed in 2012 is the first of its kind in Asia. Aside from those recognised by the HRVCB, the Philippines also provided the UN working group with information on the cases where perpetrators had been tried and convicted or acquitted; where the whereabouts or fate of disappeared persons have been reported; and where cases were erroneous duplicates, possibly fictitious or had been closed. Out of this number, 1,165 are still missing while 587 have surfaced alive and 244 were found dead.The country recorded its highest number of victims with 926 under its 10th president Ferdinand Marcos, followed by 11th president Corazon Aquino with 540, and 14th president, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo with 336.The United Nations (UN) Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, however, has placed a more conservative number of 625 disappearances since the 1980s. Tides of change: As fish and coral disappear, Palau faces the economic realities of climate change. Rising sea levels here have already caused significant damage and even caused local cemeteries to disappear beneath the waves. Time is of the essence, so skip adding them to your later-to-be-lived-out bucket list and plan your getaway now. Yet, Immigration records showing Wirecard's former chief operating officer Jan Marsalek arrived in the Philippines on June 23 and departed for China the next day were falsified, Philippines … The successive governments that have followed the Marcos regime have failed to bring both light as to the fate of the (AFP Photo)Source: Families of Victims of Involuntary Disappearance Climate change is no joke, folks. The Philippines. Mark Nowhereman 788,945 views. ... Palau, a three-hour flight from the Philippines' capital of Manila, seems a … Travel to the Philippines and Meet this Family Who Live Under the Bridge - Duration: 46:51.

None of them has ever been disappeared, and justice. Just recently, FIND told local media it noticed that the list of victims under the Duterte administration now includes victims with no affiliations but who come from the When asked what the roadblocks in seeking justice and preventing these disappearances from happening were, Sevilla was reported as saying that the biggest hurdle was the lack of common understanding of the concept of human rights.“How can you really bring the perpetrators to court if in the first stage, they will immediately say there’s no probable cause just because they are not aware of the nuances or character or nature of an enforced disappearance?” she was quoted as saying.Thousands of activists brave heavy rains as they march towards congress during a protest to coincide with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's state of the nation address in Manila on 22 July, 2019. According to latest data from the Philippines’ Families of Victims of Involuntary Disappearance (FIND), there are at least 1,996 documented cases of enforced disappearance in the Philippines since the administration of Ferdinand Marcos. Over 1,600 people were disappeared in The Philippines during the Marcos dictatorship and since. they continue struggling for truth and justice. None of them has ever been found. To this day, Christianity is the dominant religion of the Philippines (Christianity), and it features prominently in Raya Martin’s 2013 film How to Disappear Completely—the Filipino film that my video essay focuses on.