SC asked to admit new evidence on Jonas Burgos case

This photo posted on freejonasburgosmovement.blogspot.com was allegedly taken after Jonas Burgos was abducted in 2007.

MANILA, Philippines—The family of missing activist Jonas Burgos on Monday asked the Supreme Court to order the Court of Appeals to admit new evidence surrounding the disappearance of Burgos and conduct further hearing on the case.

Edita Burgos, mother of Jonas, in an urgent ex-parte motion, said she received new documentary evidence showing that an intelligence unit of the 7^th Infantry Division of the Philippine Army and the 56^th Infantry Battalion operating together abducted him on April 28, 2007, along Commonwealth Avenue in Quezon City.

The new evidence include the after apprehension report, psycho social processing report and autobiography of Jonas Burgos, all of which are confidential reports of a military official.

“The newly discovered evidence will prove that the officers and enlisted personnel of the particular unit of the 7^th Infantry Division and the 56^th Infantry Brigade are responsible for the enforced disappearance of Jonas Burgos; that these units captured and interrogated him and based on the same evidence, could probably continue to detain him or God forbid, had disposed of him in the manner that only they could explain,” the petition stated.

Mrs. Burgos filed the petition a few days after the Court of Appeals issued a ruling confirming that Burgos’ case is an example of an enforced disappearance.

The newly discovered evidence which Mrs. Burgos submitted to the Supreme Court in a sealed envelope contains names allegedly involved in the abduction.

She urged the high court to order those identified in the document to answer through further hearings to be conducted by the Court of Appeals.