INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
Farmer-activist Jonas Burgos, son of the late press freedom icon and anti-Marcos publisher Jose Burgos Jr.,had just finished a training program on organic farming for members of Alyansa ng Magbubukid sa Bulacan, a chapter of the peasant organization Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas, when he was abducted on April 28, 2007.
The 37-year-old was last seen at Ever Gotesco Mall on Commonwealth Avenue, Quezon City, between 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. that day. He was eating his lunch when four men and a woman grabbed him from his table and forced him into a Toyota Revo with license plate TAB 194.
On May 1, 2007, Burgos’ family learned from eyewitnesses that “military-looking” men took Jonas away.
A witness told police he heard Jonas say “I am only an activist.”
As the Armed Forces of the Philippines denied involvement, the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) launched an inquiry at the request of the Burgos family.
READ: They know where Jonas Burgos is
On May 8, 2007, the vehicle used by the abductorswas traced to the 56th Infantry Battalion Camp in Norzagaray, Bulacan. Malacañang, however, said the car plate was stolen by “some troublemakers.”
CHR recommendation
In June, Burgos’ mother, Edita, tagged the military as responsible for her son’s disappearance. The Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, however, denied that Jonas had been “a target of operation.”
In March 2011, the CHR recommended to the Supreme Court that Army Lt. Harry Baliaga Jr. (who was formerly posted at the Norzagaray camp) be charged with kidnapping, enforced disappearance or arbitrary detention after two witnesses identified him as one of the abductors.
In June 2011, Edita then filed a complaint for arbitrary detention, based on the CHR findings, against Baliaga, Lt. Col. Melquiades Feliciano, Col. Eduardo Año and several unidentified soldiers. (Año would later become AFP chief, interior secretary and now national security adviser.)
She also accused former AFP chiefs Hermogenes Esperon and Alexander Yano, retired Lt. Gen. Romeo Tolentino and retired PhilippineNational Police chief Avelino Razon of violating Presidential Decree No. 1829 for falsely testifying before the Court of Appeals.
The military continued to deny any involvement, saying Jonas could be a victim of a purge in the communist insurgency.
Acquitted
On Sept. 3, 2013, the Department of Justice recommended that only Baliaga be indicted for arbitrary detention, clearing Feliciano and Año for lack of probable cause.
Out on bail since 2013, Baliaga was acquitted in October 2017 by the Quezon City Regional Trial Court, which noted the prosecution’s failure to prove his role in the abduction. None of the eyewitnesses were able to identify the soldier in court during the four-year trial.
No murder case has been filed in relation to the Burgos abduction since the activist’s body has yet to be found. —INQUIRER RESEARCH
SOURCE: INQUIRER ARCHIVES