Last Seen:

July 6, 1981

Bataan
Antonio Sta. Ana is a full-time organizer in the Bataan Export Processing Zone (BEPZ) based in Bataan. He was arrested on June 24, 1981, at about 5:00 pm together with his wife Presciosa, their 7-year-old daughter Jenny, and Jemilliana Paguio, also a full-time organizer.

The four were arrested by 12 military operatives in civilian clothes believed to be with NISA, MSU, and the Bataan constabulary command. They were brought to Camp Tolentino in Balanga, Bataan, for interrogation.

They were made to ride three vehicles—an owner-type jeep, a passenger jeep, and a tinted red car—blindfolded all the way to Camp Tolentino in Balanga. In the detention center, they met two other detainees: Vivencio Santos and Romulo Ortiz. The couple, together with Jemilliana, was subjected to a series of interrogations that lasted one day and two nights. After the interrogation, Antonio was tortured right in front of his wife and daughter, who witnessed him getting the water cure—one of the methods of torture employed by the military on him.

Presciosa Sta. Ana and her daughter were released on June 29, 1981. The release papers signed contained her name and Antonio's. However, she was informed that her husband couldn't be released upon the orders of the commander on the basis that he would still be subjected to further interrogation. She then requested that a change be made on the release document, specifically to delete her husband's name from it, as he still remained in military custody. Her request was granted with the amended papers.

Presciosa regularly visited Antonio in the detention center. On 7 July 1981, she was ready with the two guarantors the military required for her husband's release, leaving Antonio and Jemiliana in the camp with Vivencio Santos, who was arrested earlier. She went to her home in Manila and reported the incident to the Task Force Detainees of the Philippines (TFDP).

On July 7, 1981, at about 9:00 am, her brother received a phone call that Antonio was already dead. She went to the TFDP office to verify the information, but the TFDP has no exact information.

She hurriedly left for Bataan and went straight to Camp Tolentino on the same day. The military guard did not let her inside the detention facility and informed her by the military that Antonio, together with Jemiliana Paguio and Vivencio Santos, had escaped.

There were doubts about the military's claim that Antonio, together with Jemilliana and Vivencio, escaped from detention. Camp Tolentino was believed to be a high-security prison camp where chances of escape were nil. A source related that one Morong policeman said that their station was not alerted about the escape of the three detainees—and this was very unusual according to the families of the missing persons.

It was just as unusual that not one of the three had contacted any of their respective families even after 12 days since they supposedly bolted out of Camp Tolentino. To top it all, Antonio, Jemilliana, and Vivencio were expected to be released within the two days after their alleged escape: Antonio and Jemilliana on 7 July, as their families already have the required custodians for them; and Vivencio on the 8th when he posts bail.

All doubts were dispersed when an unidentified detainee who was released the day following the "escape" disclosed that on 5 July, Antonio and Vivencio were shot dead and Jemilliana was raped and then shot while still in detention in Camp Tolentino. It was believed that their bodies were mutilated, packed into sacks, removed from the camp, and have, since then, been missing.

On the other hand, a letter from the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances of the UN Centre for Human Rights, dated 2 April 1985 and sent to Procesa through the TFDP, presented a different story. In his letter, the Working Group's secretary, G. Mautner-Markhof, explained that after receiving on 11 July 1981 and reviewing the information concerning the disappearance of Antonio Sta. Ana, they retransmitted these in July 1984 to the government of the Philippines for investigation.

In a communication dated 11 February 1985, the Philippine government provided the working group with details concerning the fate of Antonio, Jemilliana, and Vivencio—from their arrests by joint military operatives, the subversion charges filed against them, their detention, and finally their escape from detention by breaking the window grills of their cell. The government claimed that all the details they presented supported findings that the three—Antonio, Jemilliana, and Vivencio—have resumed their subversive activities after escaping. 

They were never seen again.

details about their circumstances.