Alyce Capuyan Omengan-Claver is the seventh among 11 siblings born to Robert Omengan and Elnora Capuyan of Sagada, Mountain Province. She was born on May 7, 1964 in Tabuk, Kalinga. Despite belonging to one of the prominent clans of the Mountain Province, she was born and raised with the values of perseverance, industry and humility. These are values that she lived by until her untimely death.

Alyce finished elementary education at the Tabuk Central School in 1976. In 1980, she graduated from secondary education at the Kalinga-Apayao Provincial High School now known as Tabuk National High School. She later got a degree in AB Commerce at the Gregorio Araneta University Foundation in 1986.

She was both beauty and brains - a consistent honor student throughout her academic years. In high school, she won as the second runner-up in a provincial-wide beauty contest and crowned as Miss Charity in 1978; and the following year won as Bb. Bagong Lipunan during the Linggo ng Wika celebration.

Alyce also hails from a family that strongly believes in nationalism and patriotism.

While a college student, she also worked as a staff of the Cordillera Peoples Alliance-Manila. In many occasions, she assisted leaders from the Cordillera villages who would travel to Manila and expose issues of human rights violations and the like. Such advocacy she continued for the rest of her life.

On June 12, 1991, she and Dr. Chandu Claver got married in Manila. They have three beautiful daughters. The eldest is Samantha “Sam”, 12 years old and will be 13 years old next June; then followed by Cassandra “Sandy”, 11 years and turning 12 years this September; and Alexandra “Alex”, 7 years old and turning 8 years this November.

Despite being married and a mother to three, her commitment and advocacy to indigenous peoples’ rights and human rights never wavered. In fact, she and her husband Chandu worked and continued to support each other in their political involvement that further strengthened their love and commitment to each other.

In the elections of 2001, as a member of BAYAN MUNA, together with her husband Chandu who was elected as the Vice-Chairperson of BAYAN MUNA-Kalinga, she campaigned hard for the partylist. She joined community activities and mobilizations explaining the partylist system and the BAYAN MUNA program.

She was also a very loving mother. She ensured that her daughters went to school on time, ready with their assignments. She and her husband never missed on their daughters’ school activities.

On July 31, 2006, unidentified elements of the State peppered her and her husband Chandu with M-16 bullets after they brought their daughter Alexandra to school. Multiple shots hit her on the head, neck and shoulders. Like the fighter who she is, she fought hard to survive. Shot at 6:45 am and later declared dead at 12:45 pm, after overcoming eight (8) cardiac arrests.

Beverly L. Longid
Vice-Chairperson
Cordillera Human Rights Alliance