AFP amenable to reopening Jonas Burgos' disappearance case

From the Philippine News Agency (Apr 2): AFP amenable to reopening Jonas Burgos' disappearance case

The Armed Forces Tuesday announced it is amenable to the idea of reopening the case of militant Jonas Burgos who went missing six years ago.

The military issued this statement after Editha Burgos, Jonas' mother, Monday went to the Supreme Court and filed a petition asking the SC to direct the Court of Appeals to reopen and re-investigate the case of her son.

"That's her constitutional right and we are open for anything that will settle this issue once and for all," AFP spokesperson Col. Arnulfo M. Burgos, Jr., said.

He added the military is one with the Filipino people in the search for truth and justice.

"We will cooperate with whatever order the SC and the investigating agency will issue. We are more than willing to present the necessary documents and people if needed," Burgos emphasized.

In its March 18 ruling, the CA "declared Major Harry A. Baliaga, Jr. responsible for the enforced disappearance of Jonas Burgos [and] declared the Armed Forces of the Philippines, particularly the Philippine Army, accountable for the enforced disappearance of Jonas Burgos."

The CA cited a December 2011 Supreme Court ruling (Balao v. Macapagal Arroyo) to distinguish accountability from responsibility.

“Accountability... refers to the measure of remedies that should be addressed to those who have exhibited involvement in the enforced disappearance without bringing the level of their complicity to the level of responsibility... or who are imputed with knowledge relating to the enforced disappearance and who carry the burden of disclosure; or those who carry, but have failed to discharge, the burden of extraordinary diligence in the investigation of enforced disappearance,” the SC ruling read.

Baliaga, a 1st Lieutenant at the time of the incident, belongs to the 56th Infantry Battalion based in Bulacan province.

In March 2011, the Commission on Human Rights, with a directive from the SC to re-investigate the matter, concluded that the military had a hand in the disappearance and pointed to Baliaga as Jonas' principal abductor.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php?idn=&sid=&nid=&rid=512318