18-year search for Jonas Burgos
First off, a call: Someone—even only one—must know where Jonas Burgos is, where he was buried/reburied or, hopefully, has been kept alive for 18 years, and might be willing to reveal what needs to be revealed. Openly—or in full secrecy—please come forward with the truth. At sunrise or sunset, at high noon, in the dead of night, in stormy weather, or sunny skies, it does not matter. This is a conscience call. It is high time. His family, friends, and fellow workers wait with grateful anticipation.
I was stunned when Edith Burgos, the mother of Jonas Burgos, uttered the word forgiveness in the first sentence of her brief remarks at the event marking the 18th year of her son Jonas’ abduction and disappearance by military elements. It was straightforward and unequivocal, neither pleading nor preaching.
Forgiveness is not an act of surrender or capitulation—this is how it seeped down into me as I stood there, watching the torches and candles being lit by Edith and the families of those who disappeared in recent years, 19 of them during the past three years of the Ferdinand Marcos Jr. presidency. From Marcos Sr.’s martial law regime starting in 1972 until Marcos Jr.’s present watch, there have been 1,913 recorded victims of enforced disappearance, according to the human rights group Karapatan.
The April 28 event at the University of the Philippines Film Institute began with the showing of “Alipato at Muog,” a 2024 Cinemalaya docu-film on the search for Jonas directed by Jonas’ younger brother JL Burgos. The Filipino word alipato means flying embers, while muog means fortress. The film shows fiery resolve and endurance in the face of daunting obstacles. It is about the circumstances surrounding Jonas’ disappearance, the witnesses who have come forward, the evidence gathered, the significant places, the false leads, the dead ends, and blocks along the way, the military and police elements who may hold the keys to the truth but cannot, will not, would rather not reveal what they know. It is search and research, recorded in real time to get at the truth wherever it could lead. All 16 years of it till the film’s premiere in December 2024.
“Alipato at Muog” is also about the fierce faith of a mother who would not give up. Where is Jonas? What had they done to him? Then a ray of hope. Jonas was alive and in detention as a photo of him showed. That was all. Then hope dimmed. What has kept this mother going besides her love for a missing son? I have known Edith to be a member of the Third Order of Discalced Carmelites, steeped in the spirituality of St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross. Perhaps that—and more. She is also the widow of press freedom icon, publisher, and political detainee Jose Burgos Jr. during the Marcos dictatorship.
Jonas was abducted on April 28, 2007, by four armed men and a woman at Hapag Kainan restaurant in Ever Gotesco Mall in Quezon City. He was forcibly taken to a waiting maroon van, with the license plate TAB 194. Jonas was 57 years old at that time, married with one child. A Bachelor of Science in Agriculture graduate, he was managing the family-owned farm and was also a member of the Peasant Alliance of Bulacan and the Peasant Movement of the Philippines. He was an advocate for farmers’ rights.
April 28 was also the date of the abduction and disappearance of Dexter Capuyan and Bazoo de Jesus. It was the start of the session of the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearance this year in Bangkok.
The Burgos family had taken several legal steps, but all for naught, among them a petition for a writ of habeas corpus that was denied, and a writ of amparo that was partially granted but was not complied with by the Armed Forces of the Philippines. The police chief who investigated the car plate was dismissed, but the identified leader of the abduction team was acquitted.
Article 2 of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance states that enforced disappearance is “the arrest, detention, abduction or any other form of deprivation of liberty by agents of the State or by persons or groups of persons acting with the authorization, support or acquiescence of the State, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or by concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person, which places such a person outside the protection of the law.”
I just received the second edition of “Beyond Disappearance: Chronicles of Courage,” published by Families of Victims of Involuntary Disappearance (tel. +63 2 3436 0061), for which I wrote a back cover blurb. It features search stories, photos, and a long list of names of desaparecidos.
Republic Act No. 10353 or the Anti-Enforced or Involuntary Disappearance Act of 2012 has not really been a total deterrent given the culture of impunity prevailing in this country.
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