BURGOS FAMILY MARKS 1st YEAR OF JONAS' DISAPPEARANCE
MANILA, APRIL 29, 2008 (STAR) By Katherine Adraneda - The family of Jonas Burgos marked yesterday the first year of his disappearance.“It has been a year but we still have the courage to stand,” said Jonas’s mother, Edita, during a commemorative Mass held at the St. Peter’s Church along Commonwealth Ave. in Quezon City.
About 100 friends and supporters of the Burgos family gathered in front of Ever Gotesco Mall, also along Commonwealth Ave., before embarking on a protest march towards St. Peter’s Church.
“The past 10 months was a vicious cycle of petitions, of rallies. This is a fight between evil and good,” Edita said.
“We have done almost everything humanly possible to look for my son, going to people and institutions that we thought would help us, but it all led us to zero.
“It is time that we ask for the help of God in the search for my missing son... We still have the courage to stand and continue the fight. We are more steadfast in getting justice for him.”
JL Burgos, younger brother of Jonas, believes that his brother could still be alive.
However, he said it has become frustrating for the family to obtain justice through the conviction of military men allegedly involved in the abduction of his elder brother because the government, including the Philippine National Police and Armed Forces, was “too good” at covering up the truth behind his disappearance.
“We were given two options: Jonas will be found either dead or alive,” he said.
“We know he is still alive because that is what our senses (kutob) tell us. The effort we exerted for my brother has come to nothing and it is frustrating,” JL said. “It is hard to achieve justice.”
He said the Burgos family is greatly affected by the disappearance of Jonas because there is no closure.
Their sister had to quit her job because she was allegedly being monitored by still unidentified men, he added.
The family has vowed to pursue their search for Jonas until they find him, JL said.
Meanwhile, the military again denied any involvement in the disappearance of Jonas Burgos.
Lt. Col. Bartolome Bacarro, Armed Forces spokesman, said the appearance of military officers in the habeas corpus case before the Court of Appeals shows the willingness of the Armed Forces to bring forth the truth.
“As I said, it is now in court and of course the very purpose why our officers attend the court hearing is to deny the allegations that it’s the Armed Forces of the Philippines who is behind the abduction of Mr. Jonas Burgos,” he said.
Bacarro said Jonas is not in military custody.
“We have been saying even before that Jonas Burgos is not under the custody of the Armed Forces,” he said.
“Remember that even during the start of this case, we have been saying Jonas is not under our custody and until now Jonas is not under our custody.”
Bacarro said the public should wait for the resolution of the case by the court, which would decide, based on evidence not speculation, what happened to the missing activist.
Several angles, including Jonas’s purported involvement in the New People’s Army, have come out, but this has not yet been validated.
Before his disappearance, Jonas was teaching organic farming to farmers in Bulacan, the Burgos family said.
On April 28, 2007, Jonas was “snatched” from Hapag Kainan restaurant inside Ever Gotesco Mall in Quezon City, reportedly by armed men and a woman, who dragged him to a waiting Toyota Revo.
The Toyota’s license plate was traced to another vehicle that was impounded a year before by the Army’s 56th Infantry Battalion based in a camp in Norzagaray, Bulacan.
Jonas is a member of the Alyansa ng Magbubukid ng Bulacan, a local chapter of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas, which is being tagged as a “front organization” of the Communist Party of the Philippines. – With James Mananghaya, JC Cordon
Reported by: Sol Jose Vanzi
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