4th Year of Jonas' Abduction

Please join us in a gathering tomorrow, 28 April, 3 pm at the Bantayog ng mga Bayani Grounds as we mark the 4th year of the Jonas Burgos' abduction. Allow us to thank you for your continued support and help us remind the government that we shall continue the search until my Jonas and other disappeared are returned to us.

EDITA BURGOS

FJBM reaction to the SC ruling

This is an atrocity against our family and against our people’s right to seek swift justice.

After three years of my son’s disappearance, and after a previous Supreme Court decision on July 16, 2007 granting our petition for habeas corpus, the same Supreme Court, in classic Pontius Pilate style, has now passed the case back on to the Commission on Human Rights for a “more meaningful investigation.”

We are, therefore, back to square one more than three years after the military and the police abducted my son. This, in spite of a writ of amparo we were granted by the appellate court in December 2007.

This is blatantly a whitewash disguised as judicial hogwash. The writ of amparo, much-trumpeted by the Supreme Court, has become merely a tool of the courts to further obfuscate and muddle the issue.

Citing “significant lapses” in the official investigation conducted by the PNP and AFP . Justice delayed is justice denied. But the Supreme Court seems not to be on the side of truth and justice but wallows in indecision and official deniability.

Despite the slow pace in the case, my family continued to respect the process even if we already felt that there was a cover-up in the abduction of my son by no less than our Iaw enforcers.

Now, do we have to pray again for the CHR to live up to this challenge of another investigation? But we have a CHR chair who is about to leave her post to assume a Cabinet position. Do we appeal to her to “please finish your investigation before you take on another sensitive post in government” this time?

I have consulted my lawyer Atty. Ricardo Fernandez, and he too was surprised that with the voluminous documents that were forwarded to the courts, the SC will now say that the Armed Forces of the Philippine and the Philippine National Police should make available to CHR pertinent documents and records. He wonders why the high court is again ordering a full probe of the case by the Commission on Human Rights when Jonas’s case had supposedly been previously investigated by the police, the military, the Justice Department and even the CHR.

Obviously the Supreme Court is washing its hands over the alleged cover up of the investigation. It did not even give a hint on whether or not the military officers and personnel that we have linked to the disappearance are guilty or not.

In the meantime, we are forced to continue searching for my missing son.

I believe that he is still alive, and his military captors must surface him. If he is dead, they must show me his body, and justice must prevail.

Sen. Pia Cayetano blogs on 2nd year of Jonas Burgos' abduction

A Mother's search for her missing son*
By Sen. Pia S. Cayetano
Chairperson, Senate Committee on Social Justice

President, Committee of Women Parliamentarians, Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) I have come to accept that I will never see my son again in this lifetime. He died in my arms almost eight years ago. But Edith Burgos does not know the fate of her son. He is missing. What does a mother do, when her son has gone missing?

If you were Edith, you will rally in front of Camp Aguinaldo, the headquarters of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, hear mass followed by a visit to the Senate to push for the passage of "Enforced Disappearance" bill. Exactly two years ago, Jonas Burgos was abducted in broad daylight inside a mall in Quezon City. One of the evidence of his abduction is the plate number of the vehicle used by the perpetrators. The family of Jonas maintains that the vehicle was traced to the 56th Infantry Battalion of the 7th Division then headed by Maj. General Jovito Palparan. On the principle of command responsibility, Gen. Palparan was expected to take the lead in investigating this case.

But to this day, no one has been held accountable for Jonas' disappearance. And yet, Gen. Palparan was later promoted and is now a member of Congress in the Lower House representing a party-list group.

Edith pleaded for a writ of amparo. The writ of amparo is an order issued by a court to protect the constitutional rights of a person. It compels the State to act on disappearances, to look for missing persons. It can hold officials liable if the court finds that they did not exert enough effort in finding the person.

In this case, the Court of Appeals partially granted her plea by directing the military and police to provide her with documents. But it denied Edith's bid to inspect military camps possibly holding her son. It ruled that Edith Burgos failed to show that the military was behind the kidnapping of Jonas. The Court of Appeals did order AFP Chief of Staff Lt. Gen Yano to reinvestigate the case with vigor. It also ordered PNP Director Gen Avelino Razon Jr to investigate and file charges. Both Yano and Razon were directed to submit compliance reports within 10 days after the completion of their investigations.
Edith Burgos told me that General Yano and General Razon NEVER SUBMITTED the compliance report required by the Court of Appeals and that the report she got was given to her ten months AFTER the CA order and only because they were about to be cited for contempt. She has elevated this case to the Supreme Court, but there has been no decision yet.

In this case, can we say that the writ upheld the constitutional rights of Jonas? Has the State acted sufficiently on the his disappearance? Were any officials held liable for not exerting enough effort to find him?

The minority floor leader, Aquilino Pimentel delivered a privilege speech on this matter. I stood up to interpellate him.
"I am appalled that government officials involved in this incident and similar crimes, can go to sleep at night and then wake up in the morning pretending that this never happened or that it is acceptable that it happens."

I asked the minority leader, "what exactly do they expect us to think?" Senator Pimentel replied, "all of the above, but the reason why these kinds of crimes persist, is because the perpetrators are rewarded with higher positions in government. And for those who tell the truth and report a crime like Jun Lozada, they are persecuted."

"Ohhh," I said, "it's a system of reward and punishment that any child can relate to. So is this the lesson this government is teaching our children? Commit a crime and get a reward? Do a good deed, and get punished?" In a press statement issued today, Lorena Santos, the Deputy Secretary General of Desaparecidos posed the question, "So, how long do we keep looking for a desaparecido?

To this I add: "How long do you keep loving a child? How long do you keep fighting for justice? I should hope that my children, the grandchildren of Senator Pimentel and Edith Burgos will continue to fight for justice and bring to closure the cases of all desaparecidos." On that note, I ended my interpellation with an appeal to our President, our chief executive and the commander in chief of the Armed Forces, to finally do what is right. Reward the just and punish the guilty.
Is that too much to ask?

n.b. Incidentally, the definition of the writ of amparo was a bar question when I took the bar exam. It was unheard of at that time. It has recently been touted as the "magic solution" to missing persons cases. But is it? #

* Entry posted by Sen. Pia on her blog www.mydailyrace.com on the second year anniversary of the abduction and disappearance of agriculturist and activist Jonas Burgos last April 28, 2007. Jonas is the son of the late press freedom icon Jose Burgos and Edita Burgos. Together with leaders of "Desaparecidos," an advocacy group of families of missing persons, Mrs. Burgos went to the Senate yesterday (April 28, 2009) to lobby for the passage of the Anti-Enforced Disappearance Bill and Anti-Torture Bill. Their presence in the gallery was manifested on the floor by Sen. Cayetano, a member of the Senate minority bloc, after which Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. delivered an impromptu privileged speech on the Burgos case. In her interpellation of Sen. Pimentel, Sen. Pia noted how military officials linked to the abduction, such as then Army Maj. General Jovito Palparan, was even promoted instead of being subjected to a full investigation by the military hierarchy. Sen. Gregorio Honasan, himself a former military official, and Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri, also manifested their concern over the climate of impunity and blatant disregard for human rights under the Arroyo regime.

AFAD Statement on the 2nd Year of Jonas Burgos’ Disappearance

The Struggle of Memory Against Forgetting…
"The struggle of people against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting." Milan Kundera


28 April 2009 - Today marks the second year of the disappearance of Jonas Burgos, the son of the late Filipino press freedom fighter, Jose Burgos. Jonas was seized by armed men in broad daylight on 28 April 2007 from a mall in Quezon City, Philippines. For two years, we have witnessed not only the pain and suffering of a grieving family but also the incomparable courage and admirable strength of a united family incessantly searching for Jonas, never leaving any stone unturned, employing all peaceful means, using national and international avenues in search for truth and justice. Our hearts bleed for Jonas’ one and only daughter, who, according to her grandmother, Edita, continues to wait for her dear Tati (father or Daddy) and would sometimes ask if Jonas would bring her to school.

Today, on the second year of Jonas Burgos’ disappearance, we have experienced yet another irony of ironies when the top military officer, Jovito Palparan alleged to have been responsible for the spate of killings and disappearances in the country since 2001, joins, on this very day, the ranks of the members of the Philippine House of Representatives – a manifestation of the cycle of impunity in a country which boasts itself as a founding member of the UN Human Rights Council.

The case of Jonas Burgos has become a high-profile case of disappearance in the Philippines not only due to his well-known surname, but especially because at the height of the phenomenon of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances in the country, his disappearance exemplifies the many other countless and nameless victims of enforced disappearances in the country since the assumption of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to power. The Burgos family has joined the other families of victims of enforced disappearance that occurred since the tyrannical and rapacious Marcos regime until the succeeding administrations not only in their common pain of having lost their loved ones, but also in their unified struggle for truth, justice, redress and collective memory.

Two years have passed and Jonas remains missing. We salute his mother, Edita. By her unrelenting spirit to search for her son, to file a case in court, to use national avenues while maximizing available international mechanisms, telling the world that in the Philippines, all is not well in the human rights front, she has consequently earned the ire of the alleged perpetrators of the disappearance of her son and, thus, has also faced constant danger. Despite Edita’s and her family’s courage and perseverance, truth and justice remain elusive. Nevertheless, Edita’s unrelenting spirit has, in no small measure, unmasked the cover up from the highest post to maliciously hide the truth and to exonerate the perpetrators. No amount of hiding the truth could stop people from pointing their fingers to the real culprits to this treacherous act of disappearing a man deprived of life and liberty because of his option to choose the road less trodden - to organize farmers in their fight for genuine land reform, thus contributing to the gargantuan task of social transformation.

Jonas Burgos’ case met a major setback in July 2008 when the Court of Appeals ruled against his family’s petition for a Writ of Amparo . The verdict stated that there was not enough evidence that the military authorities are the ones responsible for the disappearance. Accordingly, it is non sequitor that if the plate number of the car used to forcibly take Jonas belonged to the military authorities, the latter were the ones who took him. It is frustratingly unfortunate that the Writ of Amparo, a relatively newly promulgated national mechanism for human rights protection in the country, has miserably failed to facilitate the resolution of the country’s very highly projected case of enforced disappearance in recent years.

Despite seemingly insurmountable barriers, the Burgos family has never been cowed into silence and never been paralyzed by fear. The two long years of treading the thorny road to justice did not stop them from searching, from struggling, from fighting for truth, justice, redress and memory. In so doing, they have kept Jonas’ memory alive in their hearts and in the hearts of all freedom-loving men and women. They have continuously struggled, and in the words of Milan Kundera, theirs is a “struggle of memory against forgetting.”

As the Burgos family commemorates the second year of Jonas’ disappearance, the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearance (AFAD) once again expresses its solidarity with them and with all families of the disappeared in the Philippines and in the rest of the world. We commend Edita, who, by her very personal experience of losing her son, has become a very courageous human rights defender, whose faith-based advocacy is remarkably amazing. In the Inter-faith Conference on Enforced Disappearance sponsored by AFAD in December 2008, she spoke before the representatives of different church groups and families of the disappeared saying that never did (and does) she nurture hatred in her heart, in fact, she even prayed and continues to pray for her son’s torturers and despite the pain, she had resolved to forgive them without ceasing the struggle to fight for truth and justice for her son and for other victims of enforced disappearances. Deep inside her, she believes that Jonas did not just make a supreme sacrifice of serving his people for nothing. He did it for the love of his country.

On this occasion, AFAD reaffirms its commitment to never again allow this malady to happen. It shall continue to collectively fight against the scourge of enforced disappearance in Asia and in the rest of the world. In so doing, the Federation will continue to give its modest share in the struggle for a world without desaparecidos - a world where no mothers to grieve for their disappeared children, where no children to be orphaned, no more families of desaparecidos to ask the nagging question, " Where are you?"

Never again!


Signed by:

MUGIYANTO MARY AILEEN DIEZ-BACALSO
Chairperson Secretary-General


Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD)
Rms. 310-311 Philippine Social Science Center Bldg.,
Commonwealth Ave., Diliman, 1103 Quezon City

Phone: 00-632-9274594
Telefax: 00-632-4546759
Website: www.afad-online.org

JONAS WILL CONTINUE SERVING THE FILIPINO PEOPLE

By Edita T. Bugos, OCDS
Message: Commemoration of the 2nd anniversary of the abduction of Jonas

The last two years has been like an eternity of uncertainty. We were able to proceed only because in these two years of affliction, the family has been blessed with relatives, friends and unnamed supporters especially artists and those in media who have provided all kinds of assistance. We have commended them in a special way to Him who will thank them. In my dialect “Ang Diyos ang mabalos.” (God will thank them.)

Jonas was taken by armed men and a woman last April 28, 2007 at the Hapag Kainan Restaurant, Ever Gotesco Mall in Quezon City at broad daylight in the view of hundreds of mall goers. Since then we have been praying, appealing, filing cases, searching, yet nothing is known of Jonas’ fate. What is certain is that the perpetrators used a car with car plate TAB 194 which at the time of abduction was in the custody of the 56th Infantry Batallion. And what is more certain is that the state actors have all participated in the cover up so that I would not find out what truly happened.

Jonas remains to be missing, two years after. We, the family and friends of Jonas have not given up. We have been constant and consistent in our efforts to locate him. We shall not forget. Though the forces of evil, now present in the very institutions that are vowed to protect the people, shroud the truth about what befell Jonas, we believe that in His time and our perfect time, the truth will be known and justice will be served.

Jonas like the palay (rice grain) remains to be the symbol of the most basic aspiration of the true-blooded Filipino, to be able to serve one’s country . . . and to a farmer, like Jonas, service would be to produce food for the ordinary Filipino. . . and more than just to produce food, when it was asked of him, to be planted so that he would grow to produce more grains to feed more and to serve more. Did Jesus not say “Unless the grain falls to the ground and dies he cannot live again’?

Jonas continues to live in our hearts. The Burgos family is one with Jonas in his aspirations to serve the Philippines. At this time, this is spelled out as fighting against human rights violations, which also means opposing the perpetrators of disappearances and extra judicial killings.

In his lifetime. Jose Burgos Jr., Jonas’ father, gave everything to fight for press freedom and the freedom of each one to express what he believes in. After his death, Jonas, his son, is deprived of the very same freedom Joe successfully obtained with so many others when democracy was restored to the Philippines after the dictatorship.

We have stated again and again… we shall not be cowed into silence, nor terrorized into paralysis. Though we be ‘ambassadors in chains’, we shall be given the courage and the words to speak the truth.

We now ask all who read and hear this message to pray for those who participated in the abduction, the detention, the torture, and all that Jonas suffered in their hands. Please pray that they the perpetrators would be touched by the Spirit and come out to clean their hands of the blood it is stained with. Our Lord is the God of mercy. If they seek forgiveness they will be forgiven and they shall obtain peace in their hearts. They must come out and say where we can find Jonas.



Note:

Tomorrow we will be commemorating the 2nd year anniversary of the abduction of Jonas with a Holy Mass to be celebrated by Fr. Robert Reyes, 9:00 am, in front of the Camp Aguinaldo Gate, Santolan St.. We invite everyone to join the family and friends of Jonas.



Reference: JL Burgos

09162684737

New case surprises Burgos Ma

A new case was filed recently for the enforced disappearance of Jonas Burgos. The petitioners were the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) and Edita T. Burgos, mother of the missing activist. Only, Mrs. Burgos said she never filed such complaint.

"This new complaint was filed without my concurrence or support," Edita said. "This is obviously to cover up the participation of the 56th Infantry Battalion and the Intelligence Service Group (ISG) in the abduction of my son," she added.

"This case never seizes to amaze me," Edita Burgos said. The mother of missing activist Jonas Burgos was referring to the subpoena she received days before her son's birthday. Mrs. Burgos disclosed that in a letter dated March 5, 2008, Chief State Prosecutor Richard Anthony D. Fadullon has stated that there is no pendng investigation on the disappearance of Jonas as no case has yet been referred by the Philippine National Police.

Mrs. Burgos filed only two cases which have been decided by the Court of Appeals--Petitions for Writ of Habeas Corpus and Writ of Amparo. Both cases are now under review by the Supreme Court.

The latest complaint was filed before the Department of Justice (DOJ) titled CIDG-Editha T. Burgos vs. Delfin De Guzman, et al. I.S. No. 2008-846. It is seeking to charge De Guzman for the kidnapping and serious illegal detention of Jonas.

Guzman was a suspected NPA leader who was arrested in Norzagaray, Bulacan in 2006, a year before Jonas was abducted.
Guzman was pinpointed as mastermind of the abduction by Melissa Reyes, Emerito Lipio and Marlon Manuel.

"The statements of the three were most likely the basis for the latest case", Mrs. Burgos surmised. Reyes, Lipio, and Manuel were presented by the police to the media in 2007 as key witnesses to the abduction of Jonas.

Earlier reports, however, revealed that each of the witnesses had already been under the custody of the police or military before of Jonas Abduction.

Lipio, along with six other militant members of the driver's federation Piston in Central Luzon, was abducted in Angeles City on July 23, 2006. Among the units implicated in the abduction were the Army's 56th and 69th IB. The abducted activists were eventually released, except for Lipio. He remained missing and surfaced only when he was presented to the media on August 28, 2007.

Reyes Is a rebel-returnee who, based on her testimony, reports regularly to the military.

"I read the affidavits of these three persons" Edita said. "But the overwhelming evidences point towards the 56th IB and the ISG."

Jonas was tagged by the military as a member of the NPA. He was abducted April 28, 2007 by four armed men and a woman while having lunch at the Hapag Kainan in Ever Gotesco. Witnesses said that Jonas was dragged into a maroon Toyota Revo van with Plate number TAB 194. Earlier investigation of the PNP-CIDG traced the plate number to an impounded vehicle at the 56th IB headquarters Philippine Army Camp in Norzagaray, Bulacan.

Jonas is a member of Alyansang Magbubukid ng Bulacan who teaches organic farming to farmers. He has been missing for 701 days and turns 39 years old today (March 29, 2009).

Christmas 2008

As I was going through the old copies of Malaya, I came across the following editorial which was written by my father, Jose G. Burgos, Jr. for the WE Forum newspaper in 1978. For several years, it has been the main opinion piece for the Christmas issue of WE Forum and Malaya newspapers.

Reading the piece again gave me goose bumps as I struggled to keep tears from flowing. Memories of Dads flashed through my mind and I could almost feel his arm around my shoulder as I read on.

After 30 years, I asked myself: Has anything changed? I guess not. I believe that in some aspects, things have gotten worse.

I hope this article would touch your hearts as it has touched mine. Have a meaningful Christmas!


Peachy Burgos




JESUS CHRIST SUBVERSIVE
By: Jose G. Burgos, Jr.

Two thousand eight years ago, an out of town couple --the woman heavy with child--was turned away from an inn and the wife was forced to give birth to a baby boy inside a barren, dingy cave which served as a stable. This baby was thus born a squatter.

The boy grew up soon enough. His name was Jesus.

He wandered about the land, preaching about the rights of every human being to live, to love, and to learn. He was , in fact, an advocate of human rights.

In every town and city, but most particularly in depressed areas, Jesus, the squatter that He was, mingled with the lowly crowds --little people-- the laborers, the fisherman, the unemployed, the bums of His day.

He wanted people to open their eyes and witness the deprivations around them. He urged them to speak their minds out on every conceivable issue of the day. He opted for a free exchange of opinion and ideas, convinced that the truth will make men free. He was neither fettered by conventions nor undaunted by the talks about his sanity.

He did not possess any wealth. in fact, He was considered a vagrant. But the people who believe in Him, in His ideas, in His credibility and honesty, offered food and shelter to Him and His growing number of proteges who were known as apostles.

in speaking out His vision, many people in the established order, and those who wanted to maintain the status quo, collaborated to persecute and prosecute Him.

He was called a lot of names. Activist. Non-conformist. Professional Agitator. Subversive.

Because He believe in justice, He let Himself be haled before the courts to face His accusers. His apostles were rash. They wanted to revolt. But He cautioned them. They laid down their arms.

What were the charges against him?

That He conspired to overthrow the government, that He protested vehemently against the excesses and corruption of the oligarchs and power-weilders, against oppressive and abusive decrees and laws.

Hi trial was a mockery. And while under detention, He was tortured and humiliated.

But He took all this degradation calmly. for every abuse heaped upon Him, He gained added strength. he did not loses His spirit. After all, He was fighting for the ultimate in human endeavor.

The power-hungry, the military, the elite, the "malakas", the oppressors and the suppressors, had their way. He was sentenced to die--on the cross.

Jesus Christ fought--and died--for freedom, for justice, for love.

On December 25, we commemorate his birth anniversary. And as we, Filipinos, remember Him, let us ask ourselves: Was the sacrifice of Jesus Christ worth it? Do we have freedom, justice, truth, and love in our minds?

Sa Lahat ng Sulok--a photo essay

We thank Leonard Reyes for his photo essay entitled "Sa Lahat ng Sulok (No Stone Unturned)" which is currently on exhibit at Newsdesk.

The photo essay depicts our family's struggle from the time Jonas was adbucted, the camp searches to present. Newsdesk is located in Sct. Madrinan near Sct. Tobias, Timog Ave., Q.C.

Search for Jonas, a Year After

Geneva - United Nations
June 4, 2008-06-05

It has been more than a year since my son Jonas was abducted in April 28, 2007. Since April 29, the family has embarked on an extensive search for Jonas. We have availed of all the peaceful remedies provided in a democratic country. These remedies, both personal and formal, consisted of appeals to and complaints filed with all the concerned agencies: the Philippine National Police, the Armed Forces of the Philippines, the Office of the President and the Executive Department, the Department of Justice and the Commission on Human Rights. The family has likewise participated in various kinds of mass actions as well as prayer rallies and masses, which has merited the coverage of both print and broadcast media. We have also brought our case to the attention of the international community through the United Nations. And still Jonas remains missing. We, as well other families of desaparecidos in the Philippines remain at ground zero because we still do not know the fate that befell our loved ones. The truth has been effectively kept from us.

Evidences uncovered in the ten months of hearing (in 33 sessions and with 12 witness, 6 of whom were hostile military officers) has confirmed the family's belief that the Armed Forces of the Philippines, particularly the 56th Infantry Battalion is guilty of abducting Jonas and that the highest officers of the AFP are guilty of covering up.

Today, from the recent enforced disappearances, we still see that the culture of impunity characterize the abductions. We also see new forms being used by the perpetrators. First the individual is abducted and unheard of for 3 days then he is surfaced in some jail in a remote place with charges filed against him. Within the days that the victim is held incommunicado he is tortured by his captors.

The pattern in disappearances is clear. A person is disappeared and when his disappearance is published in the newspapers, this victim is demonized. Furthermore, the military feed the media with lies that the victim was killed by the rebel group because of an internal purge.

The torture of the families of the disappeared continue. With no one being convicted and the government being in a constant state of denial, as a result of which the issue is not addressed, much less solved, justice is denied to both the disappeared and his family.

To be candid, we cannot see any glimmer of hope coming from the government police forces nor from the government's executive department. To date, the case of Jonas is up for resolution by the court of appeals. I bring my case to your attention because I fear that there would be no other venue left to me. I must find my son and I pray that I find him alive and well. But to do this we must find the truth.

EDITA T. BURGOS
Mother of Jonas