Struggle to find disappeared son

Jonas Burgos is one of more than a thousand people who have disappeared since 2001 in the Philippines under President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

Edith Burgos with Mervin Toquero in Los Angeles, March 17. Photo: Apollo Victoria

His mother, Edith Burgos, and Mervin Toquero from the National Council of Churches in the Philippines spoke here on March 17 about their search for Jonas. Ms. Burgos spoke in at least seven major U.S. cities and was taking the case of her son and the others who have been disappeared to the U.S. Congress and the United Nations.

In a solidarity message, the Los Angeles chapter of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, AFL-CIO, stated that it “is deeply concerned that activists organizing for civil rights and economic justice are being targeted, disappeared by force and/or extra-judicially killed. In 2005 APALA had passed a national resolution denouncing the massacre of striking workers at Hacienda Luisita and political killings after members of APALA visited the Philippines as part of the International Solidarity Mission.”

On March 14, 2007, Marie Hilao-Enriquez, secretary-general of Karapatan Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights in the Philippines, testified before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Subcommittee for East Asian and Pacific Affairs. (www.senate.gov)

She explained the development of the current human rights crisis, and its link to U.S. funds and policy, that has engulfed Jonas Burgos, an organic farmer and member of the Alliance of Farmers in Bulacan, a chapter of the Alliance of Farmers of the Philippines:

“In the aftermath of the attacks in the U.S. on Sept. 11, 2001, Mrs. Arroyo declared her support to the U.S. ‘war on terror.’ The Philippines began receiving increased U.S. military aid and was named America’s major ‘non-NATO ally in Asia.’

“Based on the June 2005 World Policy Institute Special Report, the Philippines has requested Foreign Military Funding (FMF) aid from the U.S. government of $4.5 billion in 2006, a full $1 billion increase from the FY 2001 level. ...

“An internal security plan, codenamed Oplan Bantay Laya (OBL or Operation Freedom Watch), viewed as patterned after the Phoenix Program in Vietnam in the 1960s, was created in early 2002. ... It highlights the ‘neutralization’ of what the Philippine authorities call ‘front organizations’ leaders and members as ‘enemies of the state.’ In effect, the new anti-terrorist/insurgent campaign makes no distinction between armed guerillas and unarmed activists, making the latter fair targets of political assassinations and abductions by suspected state-organized death squads.”

A report prepared for the Human Rights Commission of the United Nations in Geneva, “Let the Stones Cry Out—An Ecumenical Report on Human Rights in the Philippines and a Call to Action,” states: “Victims of these mounting cases of human rights violations have included highly respected leaders and members of churches and faith communities, human rights defenders, lawyers and journalists—as well as peasants; fisherfolk; labor and student leaders and activists; community leaders; members of the national minorities, including Muslim communities; women and children—many of them involved in peace and social justice, land and labor rights advocacy, electoral and governance reform, and the defense and promotion of press freedom, women’s and children’s rights, indigenous people’s and Muslims’ rights to ancestral domain, territorial integrity and self-determination.” (www.oikoumene.org)

For more information go to www.stopthekillings.org or www.freejonasburgos movement.blogspot.com.