Last Seen:

November 14, 1987

Pasay City
A labor organizer of the Association of Democratic Labor Organizations (ADLO), a federation of labor unions, Edgardo Estojero, then 31 years old, married with three children, and a resident of 232 Cuneta Avenue, Pasay City, was declared missing by his family after about five unidentified armed men reportedly abducted him in Pasay City on November 14, 1987. He was never seen again despite search efforts.

According to his wife, Mrs. Corazon Estojero, at about 5:00 in the morning of November 14, 1987, a certain Salvador knocked at their residence and looked for her husband. Salvador and Edgardo talked outside the house. As Edgardo shared with Corazon when he came back inside the house an hour later, Salvador asked him, among other concerns, if he was still active in organizing work in the labor sector. Edgardo confirmed that he has remained active. He then told Corazon that he was going out to buy bread, a newspaper, and a flashlight requested by their son, Edson.

At about 8:00 in the morning, Corazon started looking for him, wondering why her husband had not returned yet. On her way to the Pasay rotunda, where she thought her husband went, she passed by a Caltex gasoline station and asked the gasoline boy there if he had seen a man that she described as small in build and with curly hair. The gasoline boy told her that he saw a man who fit the description being nabbed by about five armed men in civilian clothes and was forcibly taken to a waiting black Volkswagen car that headed towards the direction of the Pasay rotunda.

She proceeded to the Pasay rotunda hoping to find Edgardo, but there was no trace of him there. Corazon asked for the assistance of the Task Force Detainees of the Philippines (TFDP), who referred the matter to the Families of Victims of Involuntary Disappearance (FIND). Staff from FIND and TFDP searched for Edgardo in various police and military camps such as Camp Crame, Fort Bonifacio, Camp Aguinaldo, Camp Bagong Diwa, and the Pasay City Police Station. Unfortunately, the authorities there all denied having him in their custody. Corazon also learned from her neighbors that within a week prior to the incident, they noticed four unidentified men in the vicinity of the Estojero residence as if doing surveillance work.

Incidentally, Edgardo Estojero had been arrested along with four others while joining a lightning rally in Manila on July 30, 1980. He was detained in Camp Crame and Camp Bagong Diwa for four months. He was released on November 30, 1980, after he and his fellow political detainees staged a hunger strike to pressure the Marcos government. After his release, he remained active with ADLO in organizing workers and was a known labor organizer in the community.

details about their circumstances.