EDITORIAL
Manila Times
May 24, 2007

Where is Jonas Joseph Burgos?


THE Armed Forces of the Philippines has denied any involvement in the disappearance of Jonas Joseph Burgos. The license plate of the Toyota Revo used in the kidnapping, however, was traced to another vehicle that was impounded in the Army’s 56th Infantry Battalion in Norzagaray. The army said the TAB 194 plate was stolen by “trouble-makers” living near the camp.

That’s it? The AFP should give the public and the family of Mr. Burgos a more substantial answer. The army provost marshal has started and finished its work on the missing plate. What are its findings? Who stole the license plate? We have to wait because the Army public information chief said the investigators did not want to preempt the statement of the AFP chief, Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr.

Jonas Burgos, son of the militant journalist Jose Burgos, is an agriculturist who has lived quietly and simply all his life. He is a member of the Alyansa ng Magbubukid sa Pilipinas and was active in its farm training program.

He was kidnapped April 28 with two companions at a restaurant on Commonwealth Avenue, Quezon City. Witnesses said they were dragged into a Toyota Revo outside the restaurant. They furnished the police the vehicle’s plate number.

How the license plate ended up in the hands of the Burgos kidnappers is a big question. The army has promised to yield to the PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group two soldiers detailed with the 56th Infantry since they reportedly impounded the vehicle after Department of Environment and Natural Resources employees seized it in 2006 for illegally transporting logs to Bulacan.

More than three weeks have passed but there is no light on the Burgos disappearance. That’s a very long wait for his family, his friends and an anxious public. Every minute, every hour and every day counts. Failure to solve the case, or to produce Mr. Burgos reflects on the competence and will of the military and the police. As the case lags, the net of suspicion and of theories widens. At the moment, suspicion points to a unit of the military owing to available evidence and the witnesses’ account.

The history of the desaparecidos is a blot on the government’s human rights record. More than 1,600 Filipinos were abducted or disappeared under mysterious circumstances since the Marcos regime, according to a human-rights group that keeps count. Almost always, fingers pointed at the military, which has not kept secret its dislike of left-leaning organizations and individuals. Will Mr. Burgos join the ranks of “the disappeared” and become a statistic in the file cabinet?

Militants have argued against the membership of the Philippines in the United Nations Human Rights Commission because of the desaparecidos and the killings of militant labor leaders and peasant organizers. This time the Kilusan ng Magbubukid said it is considering filing charges of kidnapping and arbitrary detention against top military officials.

No one can blame the Kilusan since the military and the police are unable to put the Burgos case to a close. Where is Jonas Joseph Burgos and what has happened to him? The people, no less than the Burgos family, want to have an immediate answer.

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