Author-journalist Lilette Chan-Santos tells how she came to write the book about Fr. Romano’s abduction in 1985. In 2024, almost 30 years after publication, she says, ‘I still stand by every word in it.’
True crime in the news
Author-journalist Lilette Chan-Santos tells how she came to write the book about Fr. Romano’s abduction in 1985. In 2024, almost 30 years after publication, she says, ‘I still stand by every word in it.’
Sept. 21, 2024
CJJ asked Lilette Chan-Santos — who used to work as copy editor, then asst. news editor and news editor at SunStar Cebu — about her “meeting” with the Redemptorist priest and the book of non-fiction it produced. The feature would go — and it does — with other articles about Fr. Rudy in CJJ’s specials for September 2024’s Press Freedom celebration.
Here’s what she wrote from New Zealand where she lives:
THE first time I “met” Father Rudy, he was already missing. Hopes were at an all-time high that he would return to his Redemporist colleagues and serve the Cebuano community again.
As fate would have it, I covered the Supreme Court habeas corpus hearing in Manila 19 days after his disappearance on July 11, 1985. The story appeared in a newsletter printed by Task Force Detainees of the Philippines, a human rights advocacy group, and sent to solidarity networks, like Amnesty International.
A transfer to Cebu brought me closer to the missing Fr. Rudy. By then, the 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution had occurred, and I began writing for an independent news agency.
Fr. Rudy still had not returned and the question ”Until when shall we wait?” continued to be asked.
Summary. Fr. Frank Connon of the Redemptorist Justice & Peace Desk asked if I could write a summary of what had happened two years since Fr. Rudy’s abduction. The result was a 39-page pamphlet titled “Missing: Fr. Rudy Romano July 11, 1985”, with a charcoal sketch of the face of Fr. Rudy. At the back was a quote – more a premonition and a not-so-subtle indictment.
The ‘go-ahead’. In the course of writing “Missing,” I casually told Fr. Connon there was so much information that could not be included in the pamphlet. “Enough for a biography.” I left it at that.
I was surprised several months later when Fr. Frank approached me to say, “Go ahead, write the book.” He had received approval from his Redemptorist superiors and Claretian Publications was willing to publish.
Over the course of the next four years, in between news agency assignments and deadlines, I got to visit his birthplace in Samar, met his siblings, relatives, friends and classmates. In Cebu and Tacloban, continued to interview his confreres from when he was a seminarian to when he was ordained, his colleagues in the cause-oriented groups and even military sources who spoke on condition of anonymity.
3 years to write, 10 years after abduction. More than a hundred personal, mostly one-on-one interviews with people who knew him in some way, and boxes of court documents and news clippings later, writing the book full-time took all of three years.
The biography Romano of the Philippines saw the light of day 10 years after his abduction.
True to life. “We have a Fr. Rudy so true to life: the jolly and idealistic young Filipino, the prankster with a sense of ego, saying “Here I am.” And we have a serious, conscientious Fr. Rudy who sees himself as a Filipino and, conscious of the risk to his life, puts his all at the service of his poor and oppressed people,” wrote Fr. Frank in his foreword.
Fast-forward 30 years later, I re-read this 287-page printed work of nonfiction. And I still stand by every word in it.
AT BEEHIVE, an iconic structure and tourist attraction in Wellington, New Zealand’s capital. It houses the offices of members of Parliament.
LILETTE C. SANTOS finished in 1982 A.B. Journalism at University of the Philippines Institute Mass Communication in Diliman. She wrote for the human rights group Task Force Detainees of the Philippines (TFDP) national office, then moved in 1985 to Cebu and continued with TFDP Visayas regional office.
She later joined alternative agency Philippine News & Features as bureau chief for Central Visayas. Lilette also taught feature writing and investigative reporting at St. Theresa’s College Cebu while working her way up as copy editor, asst. news editor, and news editor at SunStar Cebu.
CLIP of an article by Cathy Viado in SunStar Weekend, date of issue not ascertained, about women in Cebu media, who included Lilette Santos.
‘ABOUT THE AUTHOR’ note in the Fr. Romano book.
Lilette left in 2001 for New Zealand. She recently retired after 20 years of government service. lives in New Zealand, and recently retired after 20 years of government service.