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Haunting stories: 'White House' and Truth Serum

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Gigi Grande, ABS-CBN News

<p>One evening in 1973, soldiers arrested teacher and political activist Fe Mangahas and took her to a place called the “White House” inside Camp Aguinaldo. Mangahas and her husband Roger had been critical of President Ferdinand Marcos who declared martial law the year before.</p><p>“They told me we were just going for a ride,” she said. “But what I heard behind closed doors really terrified me. I heard women screaming. I knew they were in pain, it could have been rape, it could have been anything.”</p><div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2018/tvpatrol/09/18/20180921-fe-mangahas.jpg"/><figcaption>A young Fe Mangahas (third from right) circa 1970. <em>Handout</em></figcaption></figure></div><p>Physical and psychological torture were among the most feared instruments of martial law. Historian Michael Charleston “Xiao” Chua said studies estimate anywhere from 7,000 to 34,000 individuals were tortured during that period. “Yung torture kasi, gusto nitong i-break ang spirit. Kasi yung activists, matatapang ang loob. Ayaw ng gubyerno na gayahin sila. Pangalawa, gusto nilang pigilan yung ganong klaseng spirit.”</p><div><strong>The “White House”</strong></div><p>The “White House”, as it is known today, is the official residence of the chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. Mangahas is not sure if the “White House” she was taken to 35 years ago is the same “White House” that has been home to the country’s top generals.</p><div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2018/tvpatrol/09/18/20180921-white-house.png"/><figcaption>The so-called &quot;White House&quot; in Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City. <em>TV grab</em></figcaption></figure></div><p>But during a visit to the “White House” in 2015, occupants told ABS-CBN News that the stately home is haunted. Another former occupant of the “White House” told ABS-CBN News the same in an interview conducted just this week.</p><p>This story, however, is not a ghost story, although Mangahas’ experience continues to haunt her to this day.</p><div><strong>Miscarriage</strong></div><p>From the “White House”, Mangahas, who was then three months pregnant with their first child, was taken to a dark room near the Intelligence compound with five men. She was released halfway through interrogation when blood flowed down her legs and it was clear she had suffered a miscarriage.</p><div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2018/tvpatrol/09/18/20180921-fe-and-roger-mangahas.jpg"/><figcaption>Fe and Roger Mangahas</figcaption></figure></div><div><strong>Smuggled Letters</strong></div><p>Her husband was detained for nearly two years.</p><p>In letters smuggled out of jail, Roger Mangahas recounted being witness to the mental, emotional and physical abuse suffered by other detainees. He was mentally tortured himself and continued to suffer trauma for many years.</p><div class="media-content"><div class="slider-for"><div><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2018/tvpatrol/09/18/20180921-letter1.jpg"/></div><div><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2018/tvpatrol/09/18/20180921-letter2.jpg"/></div><div><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2018/tvpatrol/09/18/20180921-letter3.jpg"/></div><div><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2018/tvpatrol/09/18/20180921-letter4.jpg"/></div></div><div class="media-content slider-desc"><div class="item-desc"><p>Letters of Roger describing a girl named Josie who was the worst hit by trauma at the detention center. <cite>Gigi Grande, ABS-CBN News</cite></p></div><div class="item-desc"><p>Letters of Roger describing a girl named Josie who was the worst hit by trauma at the detention center. <cite>Gigi Grande, ABS-CBN News</cite></p></div><div class="item-desc"><p>Letters of Roger describing a girl named Josie who was the worst hit by trauma at the detention center. <cite>Gigi Grande, ABS-CBN News</cite></p></div><div class="item-desc"><p>Letters of Roger describing a girl named Josie who was the worst hit by trauma at the detention center. <cite>Gigi Grande, ABS-CBN News</cite></p></div></div></div><div><strong>Torture Methods</strong></div><p>Chua identified the different ways individuals were tortured during martial law in a study entitled, “TORTYUR: Human Rights Violations during the Marcos Regime”.</p><p>Psychological and emotional torture using techniques like isolation and sleep deprivation were common.</p><p>Then there were physical forms of torture, including electric shocks to the head, arms, fingers or genitals. Victims would also be beaten using kicks, punches and karate blows. If a victim were beaten using a rifle butt, it would be called “pistol whipping”.</p><p>Strangulation was done using electric wires and steel bars.</p><div><strong>Fire and Water</strong></div><p>The “water cure” was another common torture method, where the detainee would be made to drink large amounts of water and then beaten to force the water out.</p><p>Cigars and flat irons were also used to burn the flesh. But the “pepper torture” was also used to burn the lips and genitals using a concentrated peppery substance.</p><p>The “San Juanico Bridge” was a torture method named after the newly constructed bridge from Samar to Leyte, a “gift” from President Marcos to his wife Imelda. Here, the detainee would lie between two steel cots and be beaten whenever his body would fall to the ground.</p><div><strong>Deadly game</strong></div><p>The Russian roulette was a torture method where the detainee was forced to aim a revolver with a single bullet to his head and then pull the trigger.</p><p>The “truth serum” made victims talk drunkenly, while the animal treatment had tormentors keeping blindfolded and handcuffed victims caged like beasts.</p><p>There were also reports of sexual torture like molestation and rape. </p><div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2018/tvpatrol/09/18/20180921-pete-lacaba.jpg"/><figcaption>A young Pete Lacaba, circa 1970. <em>Handout</em></figcaption></figure></div><p>Chua said authorities would sometimes employ more than one torture method on an individual. This was the case with Pete Lacaba, a journalist who was critical of the Marcos regime and a supporter of the Communist Party of the Philippines.</p><div><strong>The “Truth Serum”</strong></div><p>Lacaba has many memories of the V. Luna Hospital in Quezon City. For one, it was where his father, a war veteran, died of cancer in the &#x27;60s. It is also where he was taken by soldiers in 1974 and injected with what he called a “truth serum”.</p><div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2018/tvpatrol/09/18/20180921-v-luna-hospita.jpg"/><figcaption>The V. Luna hospital in Quezon City. <em>Gigi Grande, ABS-CBN News</em></figcaption></figure></div><p>“They tried to get as much information as they could from as many people,” Lacaba said. “Most of those given the truth serum became talkative after they were injected, parang ang feeling mo dun, lasing na lasing ka, except that in my case, hindi ako nagiging madaldal. “</p><p>Lacaba was brought back to Camp Crame where he had been detained since April that year and where he would continue to be tortured for weeks. “One of the things they made me do was squat while someone would hit my shin with the kawayan ng tambo,” said Lacaba. He also recalled being tortured using the “San Juanico Bridge” method, and being punched or kicked numerous times on the chest and face.</p><p>But while many Filipinos suffered from torture and abuse under martial law, Lacaba said there are other facets of that period in Philippine history that must be remembered, from the plunder of the nation’s coffers to the freedoms that were lost and the economic crisis. By remembering these, Lacaba said, perhaps history would never repeat itself.</p>

<p>Haunting stories from martial law victims Fe Mangahas and journalist Pete Lacaba so that by remembering these, perhaps history will never repeat itself.</p>

Haunting stories from martial law victims Fe Mangahas and journalist Pete Lacaba so that by remembering these, perhaps history will never repeat itself.

Haunting stories: 'White House' and Truth Serum

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Haunting stories: 'White House' and Truth Serum

Gigi Grande,

ABS-CBN News

Published Sep 22, 2018 12:49 AM PHT

Read More:

human rights

torture

martial law

September 21

NeverForget

Pete Lacaba

Fe Mangahas

Roger Mangahas

Marcos dictatorship

Ferdinand Marcos

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