spot_img
27.6 C
Philippines
Friday, March 29, 2024

Aba to DFA chief: Probe consulate officials

- Advertisement -

MORO human rights advocate Jerome Aladdin Succor Aba has called on Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano to conduct an “independent, impartial investigation” against the Philippine Consulate General and officials in San Francisco for neglect to do their job to protect Filipino citizens.

In a letter he submitted before the DFA, Aba also urged Cayetano to file a diplomatic protest against the United States authority for allegedly torturing him and violating his basic human rights and religion.

“I formally demand your good office to conduct an independent, impartial investigation on this and hold accountable these officials who had to be pressured to do their jobs well,” Aba said in a letter addressed to Cayetano.

“This should not go unheeded as the lives of Filipinos in San Francisco are put on line with the inutility of these Consulate officials,” he added.

Aba said he brought this to Cayetano’s attention to seek his intervention.

- Advertisement -

“I strongly urged the Philippine government to file a diplomatic protest in what had happened to me and in behalf of my Moro brothers and sisters whom I have been representing,” he said.

“This is not just an affront to my person but an affront to the Moro-Filipino community. I am hoping that we will not let this be swept under the rug as this would be a dangerous precedent,” he added.

So far, the DFA has yet to comment on this.

Aba flew from Davao to Manila and caught his flight to San Francisco to attend as resource speaker an event of the Human Rights Office of the Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church in Washington D.C. and the Stop the Killing Speaking Tour from April 19 to May 14, 2018.

But before the boarded the plane, he was brought to a room by Filipino immigration officers, after showing his travel papers.

“There, I was asked if I would be going to participate in rallies in the US,” he related.

“I told them that I will be going to the US to speak in indoor activities,” he said, adding the Filipino immigration officials then allowed him to take the flight going to San Francisco.

At the boarding gate of Philippine Airline PR 104 at NAIA Terminal 1, Aba claimed he was again subjected to a separate random security check.

“I was again asked to show my visa and passport and to explain the nature of my trip to the U.S,” he said.

He was then allowed to board the plane. When he arrived at the San francisco Airport carrying his multiple visa-passport on April 17, 2018, upon reaching the immigration desk, he was escorted by two officers and was brought to an empty room of the Homeland Security office.

“I suffered physical and psychological torture from the hands of the United States of America Department of Homeland Security and officers of the US Customs and Border Patrol,” he said.

In en empty room, the Homeland Security officer conducted “a thorough body search.”

“They confiscated all my belongings, including my cellphone and laptops. They also put me in handcuffs,” he said.

An officer he identified as Reyes, carrying a sidearm and a long firearm, started interrogating him.

“I observed that Reyes’ line of questioning was intended to force me to confess that I was a terrorist and a communist, since he asked me if I was such several times,” he said.

Reyes, he said, then opened his laptop and forced to open his email address through a program that can retrieve passwords.

- Advertisement -

LATEST NEWS

Popular Articles