GLOBAL BALITA

A year ago, April 28, Jonas Burgos was kdnapped by persons who were allegedly members of the military establishment. Several weeks ago I heard Edita Burgos, Jonas’ mother, spoke to a group of Fil-Am leaders in the Bay Area. Edita has been traveling around the United States to bring awareness to the Fil-Am community of the disappearance of her son. There is nothing more hurting than a mother losing her son and not knowing where her son is. If anyone has any information on the whereabouts of Jonas, please let Edita know.

Perry

Edita Burgos: ‘I don’t lose hope’

abs-cbnNEWS.com

A mother would go to great lengths in search of her missing son. That is exactly what Edita Burgos is doing since her son Jonas Joseph was abducted a year ago.

“We will not give up. We will continue doing this for as long as we have not found Jonas,” Mrs. Burgos said.

Others would have given up, especially when confronted with the same situation facing the Burgos Family. But Mrs. Burgos is determined to continue searching for her son, and bring to justice those responsible for his disappearance.

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Jonas was abducted on the afternoon of April 28 while eating at a fast food restaurant inside the Ever Gotesco mall in Commonwealth Avenue, Quezon City. The brazen abduction was carried out in broad daylight and in full view of people.

She accused the military of being the author of her son’s disappearance as she believes that all evidence points to them.

“May times na physically at emotionally draining pero I don’t lose hope,” she said adding that she regularly receives anonymous text messages basically trying to frighten her with the messages “kita ka pa rin namin” and “nandito pa rin kami”.

Worrying for her son

Even with the strong faith in God and the determination to find Jonas, the mother in her could not sometimes help but worry about her son.

While some would question God’s plan for allowing the incident to happen and let the eye-for-an-eye principle work, Edita Burgos, mother of missing activist Jonas Burgos, has in fact forgiven those who committed the crime against her son.

“I cannot be angry at them. I pity them. They are making a mockery of justice,” she said.

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“Baka walang pagkain, maginaw, nakahiga sa semento, walang blanket,” she said.

A letter she wrote to Jonas a few years ago aptly conveys the emotion she now feels with his disappearance.

She wrote: “The mother in me feels this complete helplessness … one I have never felt before … not even when your ate told us she was getting married, nor when your kuya had his own share of problems. I knew somehow I would always be able to reach out and offer my hand if they needed me. But in your case, I feel that if a time comes when somehow there would be a need for a helping hand, I would not be near enough to let that hand be mine.”

Another portion of that letter said: “The agony a mother must go through for love of her children is indescribable. I have no complaints. I shall not even mind for as long as you know that I am always here ready to welcome you back.”

She easily related with the nightmare that ZTE-broadband witness Rodolfo “Jun” Lozada had endured and his fear of being another “Dacer” after he was kidnapped by alleged government agents.

She wrote in the Free Jonas Burgos blogspot (http://freejonasburgosmovement.blogspot.com/) “I wondered what Jonas’ thoughts were as they took him away. Was his head covered with a hood? Were his arms and feet bound? Were his cries muffled behind the tape placed over his mouth? Did he lay cramped on the floor of the van? Did they start hurting him while in the car even as he writhed to avoid the blows?”

“All of us are in a place where we are best to be. Even if this mother couldn’t help her son, God will surely take care of him,” she said in the interview.

Campaign for Jonas

Last year, she went to Geneva, Switzerland to request the assistance of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to find her son. She also brought her son’s case and the issue of human rights violation in the Philippines to US congressmen in Minnesota, New York and Washington D.C.

“Very encouraging ang feedback,” she said.

Mrs. Burgos, who firmly believes that “God’s hand will work” considers as one of the many blessings the opportunity to take the case of her missing son and the rest of the victims of enforced disappearances to the international community.

“I accept it as God’s will. I’ve never been a speaker. Low profile lang ako pero sa tingin ko gusto ng Diyos na magsalita ako. I do it not because I like it. I do it so I can help others,” she said.

Jonas has become the face while his mother now serves as the voice behind the campaign for the rest of the families of the disappeared.

With such huge responsibility on her shoulders, Mrs. Burgos remains steadfast and unyielding. She still manages to smile, however faintly, but her eyes could not deceive her yearning to be reunited with her son.

Although she has to stay strong for the whole family since her husband Joe Burgos, the press freedom fighter who struggled and opposed the dictatorship, is no longer around to help her, friends and those who believe in justice and human rights continue to support them.

One-year commemoration

In fact, old staff of the newspaper WE FORUM that her husband put up, has convened to publish a special issue that would tackle all about Jonas’s case.

Artists also contributed their efforts and talents to produce an album called “Huling Balita” songs for the disappeared to be launched on the first year of Jonas’s abduction at Newsdesk Café in Quezon City.

And filmmakers responded to the Family’s call for help by releasing short films on human rights to raise awareness.

On Monday, family and friends and supporters invite others to join them in a march from Ever Gotesco Mall in Commonwealth Avenue at 9 a.m. to St. Peter’ Parish where a mass for the desaparecidos will be held at 10 a.m. to be followed by the album launch at 6 p.m.

For now, she hopes that more witnesses will come forward to help in the case and pray that other families would be spared from going through the same experience of having a loved one forcibly taken away by those in power.

“I don’t want this to happen to them,” she said.

A year ago today, Mrs. Burgos was just a plain widow of Joe Burgos. Now, she’s fighting for a cause. It’s a tough task but somebody has to do it–and a mother will, for her son.
With Trina Lagura, abs-cbnNEWS.com