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Part 3
A part-time teacher and full-time mother. A writer. A community organizer.
These are the stories of wives who shared their husbands with the country and dreams of a better life not only for their families but for the people. They also share the common fate of losing their spouses to the cause, either going missing or detained, or getting killed and being declared martyrs.
Beyond the immeasurable pain of dealing with the loss and the ambiguity of the future of their loved ones, they soldiered on –raised the family, carved their own niche, looked after one another, and carried on with the advocacy.
The words of Cuban leader Che Guevarra could not have been more apt, “A true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love.”
“My husband is not a terrorist!”
Fides Lim issued this statement in 2021 after the designation of her husband Vic Ladlad under the Anti-Terrorism Act. One can almost feel the throbbing words reverberate through the corridors of heaven.
For what else would the state want to do with the frail and gait Vic who has been in jail since 2018 for alleged possession of firearms?
But Fides would not wallow in rage. At once, she sought help from the Commission on Human Rights and the Red Cross. Then she asked authorities not to endanger his safety. Finally, she asserted she would use all legal remedies available to defend her husband’s innocence.
This bespectacled and diminutive figure has become a constant visitor of courts and the Camp Bagong Diwa detention center in Taguig City which is holding Vic and other political prisoners.
Fiery and assertive, Fides stands tall ensuring the political prisoners' rights and welfare are exercised.
“Sindakan is the name of the game,” Fides said while on the way to the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) for an activity of Kapatid, a support organization for the families and friends of political prisoners in the Philippines, where she serves as spokesperson.
Visits at the NBP are a long and tedious process. Even with a permit for the activity, it took almost two hours for the kin of political prisoners to enter the national penitentiary.
In between the waiting period, Fides could be seen shuffling from staff to staff, making sure that all requirements and provisions were approved for the visit. At times, she would negotiate with the jail personnel to shorten the otherwise long process.
“Her personality is different. She’s very assertive. We felt like we have someone we can trust,” one of the Kapatid members said.
According to human rights group Karapatan, there are 786 political prisoners in the country as of February 2024, including 99 arrested during the administration of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.
Kapatid was established in 1978 as a response to the crackdown on activists. Fides pushed for its reactivation after the arrest of her husband, a National Democratic Front of the Philippines consultant, in November 2018. The arrest came over a year after former President Rodrigo Duterte ceased the peace talks with the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People's Army.
Worries over her husband’s physical safety loomed months even before the declaration. With the signs of the Duterte government ending the peace negotiations slowly unfolding, Vic had to make a difficult decision. He told Fides that he had to hide and after he left, his whereabouts were never made known to her.
“I would receive letters sometimes because I sent word that I wanted to know if he was safe. But that was it. I didn’t know where he was,” said Fides, who added that she also came under surveillance prior to Vic’s arrest.
After months of not seeing her husband, Fides woke up to a frightening message in November 2018. Vic and two others were arrested in a residence in Quezon City on charges of possession of illegal firearms and explosives. A mixture of anger and worry washed over her. She rushed to Camp Karingal in Quezon City with a thought in mind: she had to make sure he was safe. She had to make sure he was alive.
“I was very angry because I knew that was a setup. Not only a setup, everything was manufactured,” she said.
The widely documented arrest centered on Vic but alongside were stories about Fides blocking a police mobile and demanding a city police district chief to ride with her husband to ensure his safety.
More than five years since his arrest, the peace consultant remains at Camp Bagong Diwa where he awaits the resolution of his case. The COVID-19 pandemic and his frail health made the detention more challenging but none of it dimmed Fides’ light. Instead, it reignited an old spark that inspired her to return to human rights work.
Through Kapatid, Fides said detainees’ loved ones addressed some of the issues that political prisoners faced including the resolution of their cases, health conditions, and the lack of food supplies and legal assistance.
“Pati ba naman kamatis ini-slice. Pati sachets ng kape at shampoo binubuksan (During checks, the guards slice our tomatoes, open coffee and shampoo in sachets),” she said.
“Kapatid’s purpose was to provide focused support for political prisoners because their numbers are not diminishing. It may fluctuate but it remains an alarming phenomenon all throughout, which represents the intensity of human rights violations, trumped up cases,” Fides said.
“Like what I’ve said before, activists who were not detained were being killed. Every victim of enforced disappearance and extrajudicial execution should have been a political prisoner,” she added.
Fides also said Kapatid helps the families of the political prisoners, adding that belonging to a community boosts their morale.
“It provides hope and raises their morale that they are not alone. We are more organized. We help each other and the political prisoners inside,” she said.
For Fides, she just had to do what she had to. Her courage springs from her beliefs.
“I always tell our members let us not accept words like ‘no’, or ‘prohibited’ because our loved ones were not supposed to be detained in the first place. Precisely, by the very definition, they are political prisoners because the charges and reasons for their detention are politically motivated, which in itself already pushes us to assert our rights that they be freed and that their rights and welfare be protected in jail,” she said.
This strength and passion resonate to Kapatid members and to political prisoners, especially to Vic, who described his wife as his “supporter.”
“She’s my supporter. She understands my work and it never discouraged me to pursue it,” he said during an activity of Kapatid.
The possibility of arrests for dissenters was something that Fides had already embraced. In their 25 years of marriage, Vic had been detained thrice. However, the years of separation never diminished their love and affection.
Together, Vic and Fides looked like a regular old married couple who bond over banters and a shared sense of humor. They would joke over Vic failing to remember their wedding anniversary as well as Fides’ birthday and would reminisce about their civil wedding in Baguio City.
“Some of the members of BAYAN used to say that if there are three magic weapons – political party-list, armed struggle and united front– I have a fourth: Fides Lim,” said Vic.
Fides said the rate of partners’ separating is also high for detained activists. But Vic, wearing a big smile while circling his arm over her shoulder, quipped: “Kami hindi. Okay kami”. (Not us. We’re alright.)
“Her support for me has always been solid. It helped that she’s active and is making ways to publicize my case. She’s also caring and has always fought for me,” he added.
Despite her tough demeanor, Fides said she always worries about Vic’s health and old age. He had been hospitalized twice due to chronic asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and tuberculosis.
“When he gets sick, I would visit more often to bring medicines to follow up and to bring him to hospital. Usually, when he’s brought to the hospital, he gets better because of the medical care and medical treatment that he so badly needs now. Jail is very bad for him,” she said.
It was due to Vic’s condition and the condition of other prisoners in detention that Fides and Kapatid has been calling for the promulgation of the Writ of Kalayaan, a remedy which seeks to address jail decongestion in the Philippines.
The writ was a suggestion made by Senior Associate Justice Marvic Leonen in his separate opinion on a Supreme Court case where detainees, including Ladlad, sought to be released on the ground their old age or medical conditions make them at-risk of contracting COVID-19 in jail.
Three years later, and the writ has yet to be promulgated despite repeated calls from Kapatid.
“Leonen, who was a known advocate for human rights proposed the Writ of Kalayaan, which provides legal remedy for those who are trapped in subhuman conditions in jails,” Fides said.
“That includes the elderly, sick, and children who were arrested. There’s a line-up for those who should be released. Vic should’ve been included there but until now, we’re still waiting to see what happened to the Writ of Kalayaan.”
The writ was opposed by the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) despite the Marcos administration’s plan to decongest the country’s prison and penal farms.
In an October 2023 press release, BuCor said that the problem of decongestion is now being addressed by the bureau through Republic Act 10575 or the Bureau of Corrections Act of 2013 and RA 11928 which provides for the establishment of a separate facility for PDLs convicted of heinous crimes.
BuCor said it has also formulated a five-year development and modernization plan to establish regional prison facilities to decongest and modernize the existing institutions.
Despite opposing the writ, BuCor Director General Gregorio Catapang expressed hope that the elderly political prisoners would soon be released.
“There are only a few of them. They’re old already. So we hope to see them released as soon as possible. We are applying for their commutation of sentences. And then if their sentences are commuted, they may meet the minimum sentence served or they may have served their sentence in full. So they can be released already,” he said.
Meanwhile, BuCor’s move was met with disappointment from Kapatid.
“They are not just statistics but human beings. But is General Catapang so heartless that he would just choose to transfer PDLs from one congested jail to another when he can't even keep them alive nor feed them a decent meal for even just a day?” the group said.
But after repeated calls and numerous rallies, has Fides grown disillusioned with fighting for her beliefs?
“No,” Fides answered. “I know what I am up against. I know what the human rights movement is up against. Because the situation is really so bad. But we— we have to stand up for what we believe in. That’s it. For me, it’s that simple.”
She stressed that there was never a time when she lost her fighting spirit.
“Hindi ako nanghihinayang. Tapos yung tapang nanggagaling dito – isip at puso. You have to stand up for what you believe in,” she said.
(I don’t regret anything. And my courage springs from here – my heart and mind. You have to stand up for what you believe in.)
For Vic, his wife’s assertiveness also served as a fuel for reforms in prison guidelines that greatly benefitted political prisoners and their families.
“She’s passionate about her work. She suggested the reviving of Kapatid not just for me but for other political prisoners…And she’s a personality. Even her classmates in high school and college extend assistance to me. She’s also from a well-off family so she can mobilize help from her circle. That’s a great help for us,” he said.
Fides agrees. Her assertiveness is her greatest strength, but for her, standing up and fighting for other people’s rights is nothing noble. It is something that only has to be done.
“As I said before, nothing will change if we don't complain. If we look at things on a broader or historic scale, the reforms that we have achieved were all products of struggle,” she said.
“Being assertive, for me, it’s something that I have to do. Because if I don’t do it, no one else will do it. Not only for the sake of Vic as a political prisoner but also for others,” said Fides.
She added, “I am not the first to do this. I am not unique, I am not a hero or I am not unusual. We are only made extraordinary because those ordinary things have already scared people away from doing it.” —with web design and additional photography by Jessica Bartolome/LDF/NB, GMA Integrated News
