Last Seen:

December 11, 1977 

Manila

ROMEO L. CABRERA, a student and resident of 1152 Industria St., Pandacan, Manila, left home around 10:00 in the morning of 11 December 1977 and never returned again. Omy, as he was fondly called, did not tell anybody in the family where he was going.

Romeo's father, Santiago Cabrera, Sr., recounted that prior to his disappearance, he often scolded his son for his anti-Marcos views. He was also very concerned about his son's activities at the Philippine College of Commerce (PCC), where he was an active student leader the previous two school years. Romeo was a business administration student at the PCC (now Polytechnique University of the Philippines). The elder Cabrera made his son take up architecture at the Manuel L. Quezon University to keep him away from his anti-government activities at the PCC. The father later discovered that his son dropped all his first-semester subjects and also failed to enroll for the second semester even as he continued to go to school every day. He also found out that Romeo was again actively exposing human rights violations and other crimes of Marcos' martial rule.

Santiago recalled that he constantly warned Romeo that he might get arrested for the activities he was involved in since the elder Cabrera believed that the military could just pick up anybody at any time even without a warrant of arrest. He also knew that a few days before his son's disappearance, his eldest son, Santiago Jr., and their neighbors noticed military men had the Cabrera residence under surveillance.

The Cabreras were very worried when Romeo failed to return home that night. They wanted to believe he was just still out busy campaigning for the "no vote" for the national referendum due soon that time. Several days passed, there still was no sign of Romeo.  His family avoided reporting Romeo's disappearance to the military authorities for fear that he would be arrested just the same when he's found. The elder Cabrera and his eldest son, Santiago, Jr., then started contacting relatives and Romeo's friends to trace his whereabouts. When this failed, they sought the assistance of their relatives and friends in the military, still to no avail.

In January 1978, with a feeling of helplessness, the family reported Romeo's disappearance to the Hon. Juan Ponce Enrile, then secretary of the Department of National Defense. In a letter dated 24 January 1978 and signed by Santiago L. Cabrera, Jr., the family requested his assistance in locating Romeo L. Cabrera, whom they presumed to have been arrested by the military.  To this day, Romeo L. Cabrera, a brave young man among the ranks of student activists, remains missing.

details about their circumstances.