Victim No More
By Dennis Rito
Ghay Portajada was her father’s favorite. She was the one whom his father accompanied to school and fetched afterwards. But on July 31, 1987 at around 12NN, Ghay returned to the spot where she usually met but her father, Armando Portajada, never showed up. When Ghay reached their home, a co-worker rushed to their house and narrated to her mother, Ligaya, how her father was abducted. But prior to his abduction, he had been receiving death threats. Ghay was in Grade 6 then.
Armando Portajada was abducted by unidentified men with M-16 rifles near the old Coca-Cola bottling plant in Pasong Tamo, Makati City . Armando worked as a ‘pajinante’ and was a union leader at the same time. He had just attended a meeting with the management shortly before the abduction.
The incident was a big blow to Ghay and her family. Life changed drastically and they were left to provide for themselves.
Ghay hasn’t stopped the search for her father. She now works with Karapatan ( Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights) and is the spokesperson for the Desaparecidos. “Until I saw my father, I won’t stop my search. And while many families of the disappeared are coming out in the open, all the more am I resolved and committed to continue the search and in the process, find justice,” said Ghay.