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Obama urged to take up alleged torture of Fil-Am with Arroyo


CHICAGO – Instead of bringing 100 Filipino congressmen to her audience with US President Barack Obama on July 30, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo might be better off having her defense secretary in the entourage. The lawyer of Filipino-American Melissa Roxas, who claimed that she was abducted by Philippine military soldiers last May, wrote President Obama on July 15 asking him to bring the case to the attention of Mrs. Arroyo during their meeting in Washington, D.C. Roxas, a US citizen residing in Los Angeles, claimed that she was taken and tortured by suspected military agents while she was on a medical mission in Tarlac. Lawyer Arnedo S. Valera filed a complaint on July 1 against the Philippine government on the abduction and torture of Roxas before US Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton. This time, he is seeking to take advantage of Mrs. Arroyo’s visit to bring the case to the attention of both presidents. In his letter to Obama, Valera said: “Ms. Roxas is the first known American citizen under the new administration of your presidency who has been subject to torture and degrading treatment in the Philippines, a close ally of and receiving military aid from the US government." The lawyer informed Obama that Roxas, who is also a poet, visited the Philippine to volunteer as a health care worker and gather materials for a writing project. Valera requested the American leader to urge the US State Department to conduct an investigation of the Philippine government’s possible culpability in the case of Roxas. In a press conference in Los Angeles last month, Roxas said she was conducting a community survey when she was forcibly abducted by 15 armed men in La Paz, Tarlac on May 19. She said she was released six days later after being subjected to physical and mental torture during her captivity in a suspected military camp. The Armed Forces of the Philippines’ (AFP) leadership has denied ordering anyone to abduct Roxas, an activist affiliated with the US chapter of the Philippine militant group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan or Bayan. - GMANews.TV
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