(This response from the community by Redemptorist Brother Karl Gaspar was read by his sister, Helen, at the launch of the book, “Frontliners for Human Rights: FLAG of the People @50,” at the Ateneo de Davao University on 22 September 2025) 

Atty. Manuel Quibod, FLAG Lawyers, Ladies and Gentlemen. Good afternoon to you all. First, I would like to thank Atty. Quibod who asked me to give a message at this anniversary celebration and book launching. I am just sorry I cannot be with you since my present sickness does not allow me to travel outside Cebu. So I asked my sister Helen to read this message. 

Let me tell you my story as to how I linked up with FLAG. I’ve known FLAG’s founder – Ka Pepe Diokno – long before the martial law regime of the late dictator, Ferdinand Marcos. 

On Saturday before Palm Sunday in 1983, I brought a bunch of documentations related to human rights violations to a German who had come to Davao for an exposure – Volker Schimt. He was leaving the following day for Germany. 

You have to know that in 1983, we had no computers or cellphones. And we cannot trust the Post office. The only way we can send these documentations abroad is to have them handcarried by foreign friends. You have to appreciate the fact that Marcos was very sensitive to foreign press so we made sure these documentations were received abroad!

Unknown to us, the apartment where Volker resided had been raided by the military and those staying there were all arrested. I was the last to fall into this trap! As I entered the apartment I was immediately arrested and since I was carrying a bunch of documentations, I was then the perfect person to be arrested!

At dawn the following day, I was put on an airplane to be sent to Camp Bago Bantay for interrogation. Naturally I feared for my life. Ka Pepe Diokno and Sr. Marianni Dimaranan, SFIC (the founder of Task Force Detainees) intuited that I was still alive and detained at Bago Bantay, so they rushed to look for me. But the camp commander told them they had no idea where I was.

Right there and then, Ka Pepe filed a habeas corpus petition with the Supreme Court. The military was forced to surface me and on Easter Monday 1983, I appeared before the justices en banc. But the military already filed a subversion case against me with the RTC in Davao City. So I was flown back to Davao and incarcerated at Metrodiscom.

Immediately a group of FLAG Lawyers including Atty. (Laurente) Ilagan, (Silvestre) Bello, and Jess Dureza took up my case. Jess was my classmate (Batch ‘63 in Holy Cross Academy in Digos now Cor Jesu College). However shortly after, he dropped out of my case. And by the way, the Prosecutor representing the martial law regime was Atty. Rody Duterte who was also a high school classmate. 

To make the long story short, I was acquitted by the RTC judge after 20 months of being a political detainee. But because the Preventive Detention paper had to be signed by Marcos himself and brought to Davao, I was still detained for two months. So all in all, I was a prisoner for 22 months! 

Thanks to the FLAG lawyers, I regained my freedom, and possibly Ka Pepe’s intervention saved my life. I was just one of thousands of human rights victims who regained their freedoms or even survived the wrath of the brutal dictatorship

We can only be grateful there was FLAG whose lawyers were also risking their lives for the sake of the victims, while upholding freedom and justice. On behalf of all of us, thank you FLAG!

As you celebrate your 50th Anniversary as well as launch this book– Congratulations!

May you continue to be the people’s defenders! As you do so, we salute you and wish that your tribe will increase! Daghang Salamat!