“Who is Adora Faye?”

This question started circulating in social media after her reported arrest on Wednesday, August 24 and after his brother, Commission on Higher Education (Ched) Chairperson Prospero De Vera III distanced himself from her sister.

Panay News reported on Thursday, August 25 that Adora Faye De Vera (reported as de Veyra) was arrested by authorities in Teachers Village East, Quezon City. Allegedly, De Vera has a warrant of arrest for multiple murder with the use of explosives and multiple frustrated murders issued on March 19, 2006.

De Vera was alleged as a high ranking officer of the Communist Party of the Philippines.

But amid this allegation of the authorities, former secretary of the Department of Social Welfare and Development, Judy Taguiwalo said De Vera is a martial law survivor.

“She is a martial law survivor whose story of rape and sexual abuse while in the hands of the military was one of the cases filed during the class suit against Marcos in Hawaii,” said Taguiwalo in a Facebook post.

She also described De Vera as a very talented poet “whose poems deal with women’s oppression, state violence against women and the power of collective action.” Along with her post is De Vera’s poem entitled 11:30, which Taguiwalo said, she used as reference in teaching women’s studies.

Taguiwalo was also a political prisoner during martial law of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr.

Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay also posted De Vera’s poem for desaparecidos, including her husband who has been missing for many years.

“Hahanapin kita sa luntian bukirin, Sa ngiti ng sanggol, sa ihip ng hangin; Kung sa paglaya na ang iyong pagdating, At wala ka roon ay hahanapin pa rin.”

The horrors of her torture and sexual abuse from the hands of the soldiers written in Martial Law Files: A History of Resistance also resurfaced and circulated in social media.

De Vera is also among the 10 original plaintiffs who filed a class suit against Marcos Sr. in the US.