'One year after, we're back to zero,' says Edita Burgos
By Fe Zamora, Nikko Dizon
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 05:03:00 04/29/2008
MANILA, Philippines—The disappearance of Jonas Burgos was allegedly the result of a military "entrapment" operation to unmask the recipient of information supposedly leaked by an Army lieutenant to communist insurgents, Jonas' mother, Edita Burgos, said Monday during rites marking her son's first anniversary as a desaparecido (disappeared one).
Burgos said the "entrapment" was used to "neutralize" the recipient of the military leaks. She showed a document that listed Jonas, alias Ka Ramon, allegedly an intelligence officer of the communist New People's Army in Bulacan, as having been "neutralized."
The Burgos family was able to "piece together" the circumstances surrounding Jonas' disappearance from interviews with witnesses, media accounts and material information volunteered by sympathizers in the military.
"It did not matter to the [military] that he was the son of Joe Burgos. [They] believed he was receiving military information – that was the motive for the abduction," Burgos said in an interview at the Ever Gotesco mall in Quezon City where her son was last seen alive on April 28 last year.
The Burgos family, joined by friends, sympathizers and human rights advocates, marched from Ever Gotesco to St. Peter's Cathedral on Commonwealth Avenue for a Mass and a short program.
When he disappeared, Jonas, an agriculturist, was also a member of the militant group Kilusang Mabubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) and had been lecturing on organic farming to the Alyansang Mabubukid ng Bulacan (Alliance of Farmers in Bulacan), a local chapter of KMP. His father, the late Jose "Joe" Burgos Jr., was a crusading newsman who fought the martial law regime in the 1970s and '80s.
Mass for the living
Bishop Antonio Tobias said he was officiating a "Mass for the living, not a Mass for the dead," stressing that the Burgos family and their sympathizers remained hopeful that Jonas would surface alive.
Breaking down in public for the first time, Burgos wept as she recalled the "vicious cycle" in the search for her missing son.
"One year after, we're back to zero. We still don't have Jonas with us," she said.
The Burgos family has blamed the military for Jonas' abduction after the license plate on the getaway vehicle was traced to a vehicle impounded in an Army camp in Bulacan.
The military has insisted that it had nothing to do with Jonas' disappearance.
Before the abduction
Based on media accounts and information from witnesses and sympathizers in the military, the Burgos family pieced together the following events which allegedly transpired before Jonas' abduction:
On March 25, 2007, the AFP arrested 2nd Lt. Dick Abletez for allegedly leaking vital military information to "unidentified" recipients.
Burgos said Abletez, who was apparently under surveillance, was allegedly caught on video passing information to a woman, a certain Meliza Reyes.
According to Burgos' informant, Reyes was later traced and seen in the company of Reggie de la Rosa, also known as Ka Joe or Kadyo, an alleged activist also based in Bulacan.
"I seem to know a Kadyo among Jonas' friends. I may even have met him," Burgos said of De la Rosa.
On April 28, 2007, De la Rosa, Reyes and Jonas were supposed to meet at Ever Gotesco.
According to Burgos' informant, De la Rosa was supposed to introduce Jonas to Reyes that day. Reyes was supposed to give Jonas the military information or document leaked by Abletez.
Dragged before witnesses
Burgos narrated that De La Rosa arrived at Ever Gotesco at around 12:30 p.m. but decided to cancel the meeting and told Reyes to go home. At about the same time, Jonas, alone, was apparently at the mall having lunch at Hapag Kainan, a fast-food outlet.
"A woman suddenly approached Jonas, acting like she was his wife or lover. She created a scene, saying things about infidelity, etc., parang away mag-asawa (like a tiff between husband and wife)," said Burgos, quoting an eyewitness.
Four "military-looking" men appeared and dragged Jonas out of the mall as the woman continued making a scene, apparently to keep bystanders away, Burgos said, still quoting an eyewitness.
Jonas was heard by witnesses shouting "aktibista lang ako (I am only an activist)" while being dragged to a maroon-colored Toyota Revo with license plate TAB 194. That was the last time he was seen alive.
Still missing
"Kadyo is still missing and Reyes, we found out, is a rebel returnee who reports to the military," Burgos said.
She added that Reyes "is the direct link" to Abletez while Kadyo "is the direct link to Jonas."
The military has confirmed that Abletez is under court-martial proceedings, but not for passing on information to the "enemy."
Last year, Burgos filed a habeas corpus petition for the military to present her missing son, but the military failed to produce Jonas.
In December, the Court of Appeals issued a writ of amparo and ordered several military officers to testify on the case.
Burgos said she hoped to get a decision in May.
'We do not have Jonas'
The military maintains its claim that it does not have Jonas in its custody.
"We have said that Jonas Burgos is not in the custody of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and until now, Jonas is not in our custody," military spokesperson Lt. Col. Bartolome Bacarro told reporters in an interview Monday at Camp Aguinaldo.
Bacarro said military officials would attend the hearing, scheduled next month, on the petition for habeas corpus which the family of Jonas Burgos had filed.
"Of course, the very purpose why our military officers will appear before the court is to deny the allegations that the Armed Forces of the Philippines is behind the abduction of Mr. Jonas Burgos," he said.
"We are in a society where rules of evidence are being followed. Perhaps we should wait for the resolution of the case through our legal processes," Bacarro added.
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