The Court of Appeals has completed its Supreme Court-directed inquiry into the abduction of Jonas Burgos and declared the military, “particularly the Philippine Army, accountable for the enforced disappearance” of the activist-farmer who has become the poster boy for Philippine desaparecidos.
In a report capping a nearly three-year inquiry, the CA ruled to recognize “the abduction of Jonas Burgos” as an enforced disappearance covered by the Rule on the Writ of Amparo”---the most damning official confirmation yet that the Armed Forces of the Philippines had seized Burgos on April 28, 2007 as he lunched in a Quezon City mall. His family had insisted on this right from the start, but the AFP repeatedly denied it.
The ruling, signed by CA Associate Justice Rosalinda Asuncion-Vicente, was concurred in byAssociate Justices Francisco Diamante and Remedios Salazar-Fernando, the former chair of the special Former 7th Division that was first tasked by the high tribunal to conduct the investigation when the Burgos family, led by Jonas’s mother Edita, first sought a writ of amparo.
The CA ruled to grant the writ of amparo, and said that, “with regard to authorship” of what it officially declared as a state-sponsored abduction, it holds “ACCOUNTABLE [capitals by the CA]” the Armed Forces of the Philippines “and elements of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, particularly the Philippine Army” for this.
It named former Army Major Harry A. Baliaga Jr. “responsible” for the “enforced disappearance” even as it noted that several abductors are still “at large.”
The court directed the PNP’s Criminal Investigation Division Group to “exercise extraordinary diligence to identify and locate the abductors of Jonas Burgos who are still at large.”
Likewise, the CA directed the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) to continue with its own independent investigation of the abduction “with the same degree of diligence required under the rules on the Writ of Amparo.”
The court ordered the AFP and the PNP to extend full assistance to the CHR inquiry.
It noted that during the pendency of the SC-directed investigation at the CA, petitioner Edita Burgos had filed, on June 9, 2011 before the Department of Justice an affidavit-complaint against several persons led by Baliaga, for violation of Article 124 of the Revised Penal Code, “or possibly murder.” The accused in that complaint at the DOJ are, besides Baliaga: Lt. Col.Melquiades Feliciano, [then] Col. Eduardo Ano, several John Does and/or a May Doe(s).
Ano has since been promoted general and was named chief of the Intelligence Service of the AFP (ISAFP) by President Aquino but was bypassed by the Commission on Appointments owing to the complaint of Mrs. Burgos.
Also accused before the DOJ, but for another charge (violation of PD 1829) were Lt. Gen. Romeo Tolentino, Gen. Hermogenes Esperon, Lt. Gen. Alexander Yano, and PNP director general Avelino Razon.
The CA directed petitioners to immediately apprise it of the latest developments with regard to the DOJ complaint that they filed.
http://www.interaksyon.com/article/58121/jonas-burgos-was-abducted-by-afp-court-commission-concludes
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