Maria Luisa “Luing,” Posa was born in Roxas City, Capiz but spent most of her growing up years in Pototan, Iloilo, where she completed her elementary and high school studies in a Catholic-run school. Her father was a hospital administrator while her mother has government employee under the Presidential Assistance on Community Development (PACD). She entered college at the height of student activism in 1971 but she dropped out the following year. She resumed her studies twenty years later and earned the Bachelor of Elementary Education, cum laude, from the Central Philippine University.
Her activism started when she joined the Cultural Association of the University of San Agustin (CAUSA) and, later, the Kabataang Makabayan’s women’s desk, and Makibaka, a women’s organization which she led. Luisa helped organize the Makibaka in Iloilo, Capiz, and Negros Occidental. When martial law was declared, she joined other activists who fled to hinterlands to escape arrests. She was 17 years old. She became a political officer doing organizing work in communities.
Luisa was arrested five times and escaped three times, which made her some kind of a legend and earned her the moniker “Kumander Posa.” Luisa was first arrested March 29, 1973, in Roxas City by the Philippine Constabulary. She was able to escape two days later. Four months later, in July 1973, she was arrested again in Hamtic, Antique. Together with fellow activist (and later Social Welfare secretary) Judy Taguiwalo, she was detained at the Camp Delgado in Iloilo City and underwent torture, manhandling and sexual assault. She was later moved to the military camp in Lahug, Cebu, and then to Fort Bonifacio in Manila in March 1974.
She was released in October 1974 but was arrested a month later in Lambunao, Iloilo. She was moved to various detention centers (Iloilo City, Cebu City, Antique and then back to Iloilo City).
In detention, she married fellow political prisoner Tomas Dominado in March 1977, but escaped five months later and then was recaptured in October 1977 (by the military colonel who stood as “ninong” at her wedding in detention.) In 1978, she was charged with murder and illegal possession of firearms. She escaped anew in September 1980. She was arrested in 1987, a year after Edsa People Power Revolution and was charged with rebellion and murder. She refused to apply for amnesty. Both charges were eventually dismissed in court, and she walked free on April 1991.
Interviewed in 1991, Luisa said she made her repeated escapes from prison because she felt the need to go to the people “to arouse them to fight for their future, for their family, and their children.” About her political commitment she said her family waited for the time she would tire herself out. “In time I think they began to see that since I remained resolute, maybe that drew even just empathy with my cause.”
From 1991 to 2007, Luisa worked for the release of political prisoners, joining organizations like KAPATID and SELDA. She helped set up memorials for martial law victims in Iloilo and Roxas cities. She became an officer of Panay Fair Trade, an organization working with small producers and for promotion of organic farming. She lobbied for higher salaries of teachers and championed consumer, environment, and gender issues. She campaigned for compensation and relocation of victims of the 2006 oil spill in Guimaras and spoke against the proposed coal fired power plant in Iloilo City. She opened her home for women victims of sexual violence.
In the early morning of March 19, 2007, motorcycle-riding suspects threw a bomb at the printing house owned by Luisa’s husband’s family. Among the clients of the press were progressive party-list groups Bayan Muna, Gabriela, Kabataan and Anakpawis. Luisa reported the incident to the local police at Villa, Iloilo City, as a form of political harassment. Luisa campaigned for the partylists Bayan Muna and Anak Pawis for the May 2007 elections.
On April 12, 2007, Luisa traveled to Antique to solicit the support of Governor Sally Perez and Congressman Exequiel Javier for the party lists she was supported. On the way home, at 9:30 p.m., along the highway in Barangay Cabanbanan, Oton, Iloilo, her vehicle was blocked by armed men. They shot the driver, Jose Ely Garachico, on the neck and left him for dead. Luisa and her companion in the vehicle, Nilo Arado, a local leader of Anakpawis, have not been heard of since.
Family and friends made a desperate search for the two, visiting military camps, writing letters of appeal, even asking help from those candidates then running for office. Luisa’s brothers, Louie and Ben, both involved in the search, have since both passed away. Luisa’s daughter May Wan filed petitions for a writ of habeas corpus and a writ of amparo, both granted but still to no avail. Legislative inquiries and public condemnation of the abductions found no positive results.
With no indication the two have survived their abduction, they are presumed dead today. A marker stands today on the spot of their abduction, put up by artists. The Alliance of Concerned Teachers gave Luisa a “Guro ng Bayan Award” during the organization’s 30th anniversary on April 29, 2012.
