Man says he saw missing UP students in military camp
By Norman Bordadora
Inquirer
Last updated 10:14pm (Mla time) 02/07/2007
MANILA, Philippines -- A former mining camp
watchman, allegedly forcibly taken by members of the military last
April, said on Wednesday that he saw the two missing University of the
Philippines students abducted by armed men in Bulacan in June inside a
military camp in Nueva Ecija.

Oscar Leuterio said the students -- Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeņo
-- arrived at Fort Magsaysay in a van together with a group of
soldiers in the wee hours of June 27.
"I don't know if they're still alive because they were never taken
into a cell. After they arrived, they were also taken out from the
camp," Leuterio told reporters.
Leuterio, himself an alleged victim of military abduction, was one of
the witnesses of enforced disappearances presented by the rights
groups Hustisya (Justice) and Desaparacidos (Missing) to the media on
Wednesday.
The news conference was conducted in response to President Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo' s challenge for witnesses of human rights violations
to come out with their stories.
"(The students) were almost made to dance in front of the soldiers
who were drinking in the compound. It was when the soldiers' CO
(commanding officer) told them that they shouldn't make the two women
dance that they were spared (from the ordeal)," Leuterio said.
"I even heard one of the soldiers say it will be a pleasure to be
with the women," he added.
Leuterio said he was kept in a cell at the fort for five months, from
April until September, without any contact with his loved ones in
Bulacan.
He said he was suspected of being a member of the New People's Army.
He maintained that he was a security guard at the Iron Ore Mining
Corp., in Doņa Remedios Trinidad, Bulacan.
Cadapan and Empeņo were taken by armed men believed by their
relatives and friends to be members of the military in the same
province in June 26.
Leuterio said he saw the two women arrive past midnight with the
soldiers on June 27.
"If they need a witness I'm ready to testify on what I know," Leuterio said.
He has filed a complaint before the Ombudsman and a civil case before
the Quezon City regional trial court in connection with his detention
at the military camp.
Leuterio said he was tortured and was treated like a servant during
his stay at the military camp.
"They were toying with me so I also toyed with them," Leuterio said,
adding he promised to report to the military every so often in
exchange for his release.
"Just two weeks after they released me, I already left our
community," he added.
Cadapan and Empeņo are the subjects of habeas corpus petitions filed
by their respective families with the Supreme Court.
The military has consistently denied having the two women in their custody.