Rey

In August 2023, I shared a tiny piece of writing with the Rappler Plus community. The piece was prompted by the news of the death of Jemboy Baltazar, a 17-year-old fisherman who was pounced upon by cops chasing a suspect in Navotas. Without stopping to check the boy's identity, the cops shot him several times. He was still alive as his body fell in the water, but he eventually drowned.

This was the piece, which was then shared by Rappler on its social media pages, and garnered considerable views and responses from the public.

One of the comments that stood out to me was from a young Filipino activist. He asked us to not forget about Rey Belan, another 17-year-old murdered by the military earlier in the year. I looked for news stories about Rey. but couldn't find any at all. Only one news site reported his death. Even today, Rey's name and the circumstances of his killing are still unknown to most of the public.

I can't find a lot of information about Rey when he was alive. His social media activity indicated that he was only active on Facebook in 2021, posting selfies from January until November. He was 15 then. Maybe he lost interest in social media, maybe life made it impossible for him to keep posting selfies.

Here are the facts of his murder though:

Rey, known to his family and friends as Carling, was a farmer. He lived in the hilly village of Balantay in Dimasalang, Masbate. In the morning of 16 June 2023, he, along with five friends and a dog, went up a hilly area to try and hunt monitor lizards for dinner.

They were on their way home in the afternoon when they were attacked by soldiers from the 2nd Infantry Battalion. Rey was shot four times. One of his friends, Senen Dollete, was injured. The soldiers even threw a grenade at their group.

The surviving members of the group managed to make it home, but Rey's family were barred from going to the hill to retrieve his body. They had to wait for hours until they were finally allowed to get Rey's corpse, with the help of some village officials. The body was then taken to the police headquarters with military escorts.

Here's where the story takes a familiar turn. Instead of acknowledging their responsibility for Rey's death, the military insisted that Rey and his friends were a group of armed rebels who engaged the soldiers in a gunfight. They even planted a grenade and some guns as evidence. This allegation was of course refuted by Rey's family and his friends.

It's been over a year and there's still no possibility of justice for Rey. In fact, the police had gone and arrested his friends and charged them with frustrated murder.

There are a couple of photos taken on the day of Rey's murder that are available online: In the first photo, Rey's body is inside some sort of tarpaulin, which is tied to a bamboo pole. You can only see his hands sticking out of the tarpaulin. In the second one, a group of young children are crouching in front of his corpse. They have their backs turned to the camera, but you can tell that they're distressed. One of them is resting his hand on Rey's body. They could be his siblings, cousins or neighbours, but you can feel the harrowing effect of his murder on them.

I wish there were some more information I could share with you about Rey, but all we have are these little glimpses of a life and the murky details of the aftermath of his death. I hope these will suffice for you to want the same thing that his family and friends want—justice for him and freedom for his friends.

Sources:

• https://www.karapatan.org/media_release/karapatan-decries-killing-of-teen-farmer-in-masbate/

• https://manilatoday.net/17-year-old-killed-by-military-in-masbate-only-two-days-after-himamaylan-massacre/

• https://philexaminer.com/?paged=14&cat=20&page=27

https://x.com/king_hedgie/status/1849320560356102279