Rolando abadilla biography

Danilo Reyes, Programme Officer, Asian Human Rights Commission, Hong Kong

Sixteen years ago on 13 June 1993, unidentified gunmen shot dead an influential police colonel, Rolando Abadilla, in Quezon City in the Philippines.

Abadilla, henchman of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, had been accused of being complicit to political murders during the period of martial rule.

The anniversary of Abadilla’s death also marks an exceptionally lengthy struggle to exonerate the five men accused of killing him, known as the “Abadilla Five”.

All five had to confess to the murder, and later disclosed they had done because they could not bear suffering from the extreme torture, including suffocation with plastic bags, electrocution and brutal beatings.

What’s more, the Alex Boncayao Brigade, an urban guerrilla group, has openly claimed responsibility for Abadilla’s murder, but the court refused to consider this as