Is Sheila Eballe in safe hands?
A source confirmed to Cebu Daily News that the 36-year-old woman, who openly demanded that President Rodrigo Duterte close the quarry operations in Naga City, is safe and under their care.
The source, however, asked not to be named and not to identify their organization to prevent people from tracing Eballe’s whereabouts.
In Eballe’s message relayed by the source to CDN, Eballe said that she feared for her safety because there were people looking for her after she spoke before the President on September 21.
“I fear for my safety now, they are looking for me. I was first alerted when the security personnel from Apo-Cemex were looking for me. Have I committed any wrongdoing? I only expressed what is true,” Eballe’s supposed message read.
Apo Land and Quarry Corp. (ALQC), through its representative Chito Maniago, vehemently denied that they had sent people to look or go after Sheila.
“It is very unfair for our name to be associated in Sheila’s being missing right now. When she posed the statement before the President, we listened to it as it is a very sincere question,” said Maniago in a phone interview on Sunday.
Maniago added that it had never been in ALQC nor Apo Cement Corp.’s track record to go after people who speak against them.
Meanwhile, Eballe’s relatives had been worried since their search for her had been futile.
Arnel Aliganga, Eballe’s cousin, said he last saw Eballe when he helped her get her clothes from her house in Sitio Sindulan, Barangay Tinaan on Saturday noon, the day after she spoke against mining in front of President Duterte.
“Gikan nagkuha sa iyang mga sinina, nagbuwag mi sa may Jollibee Naga kay nikaon siya unya humana man kog kaon ato. Mamalik pa unta mi sa iyang balay kay kuhaon ang iyang uban na gamit pero wa naman kay di na siya ma-contact,” said Aliganga.
(We came from her house in Sindulan to get her clothes, and we parted ways near Jollibee Naga because she was going to eat and I had already eaten. We were supposed to go back to her house to get more of her belongings, but this did not happen because I could no longer contact her after that.)
Aliganga said they had been looking for Eballe since then, but all their efforts were futile.
Eballe’s common-law partner, Dorotheo Abay, was already informed that Eballe had been missing, said Aliganga.
He said that Abay had recently flown to Canada with their children, whose ages were 18 and 21, after they were petitioned by Abay’s parents.
“Nagsige to og hilak iyang bana. Mouli unta to siya puhon aron pakaslan si Sheila, aron madala pod niya og Canada,” said Aliganga.
(Her husband cried when he learned that Shiela had gone missing. He was supposed to return home in the near future to marry her so that he could bring her to Canada, too.)
Aliganga also said that some men whom he did not recognize came to their place in Barangay Pangdan looking for Shiela.
“Wala man mi kaila maong wa gyod mi nitug-an kung asa iyang balay. Pero karon hasta kami wa na kahibaw asa siya,” he said.
(We did not recognize them so we did not tell them where her house was. But, now, we do not know where she is.)
Chief Insp. Roderick Gonzales, chief of Naga City Police, however said that the relatives of Eballe did not report to the station that she had gone missing.
Gonzales said they had yet to verify the reports about Eballe going missing.
In the Enan Chiong Activity Center (ECAC), the evacuation center where Eballe was housed prior to the presidential visit, social workers said that they had not seen Eballe since Friday evening.
The evacuees’ logbook has not reflected the name of Eballe since Saturday morning.