Ex Rep. Neri Colmenares: Martial Law & Surviving Torture
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Former Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Colmenares recalls how at 18 years old he suffered at the hands of his tormentors. At gun point, his life was put at the mercy of luck.
"The worst thing that they did to me was the Russian roulette. I can't forget that."
Neri Javier Colmenaresis a human rights lawyer and activist. He was an Associate of the Asian Law Centre at Melbourne Law School when he was completing his PhD in Law on “The Writ of Amparo and the International Criminal Court”. He also lectured at the University of Melbourne on International Human Rights Law and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
A native of Negros Occidental, Neri began his activism at 15 as a youth organizer against martial law in 1976. During the ‘80s, he became an officer of the College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP), Student Christian Movement of the Philippines (SCMP) and the Visayas Regional Chair of the Student Catholic Action (SCAUP).
He was arrested twice for his student activism by virtue of an Arrest, Search and Seizure Order (ASSO) issued by then Pres. Ferdinand Marcos. Neri languished in prison for a total of four years during martial law. He was heavily tortured during his imprisonment and, as one of the 10,000 human rights violations victims in the Marcos Human Rights case, he appeared before the Hawaii District Court in 1998 to contest the unjust $150 Million settlement agreement with the Marcoses.
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