‘Burgos case to serve as litmus test for AFP’

MANILA, Philippines - The disappearance of activist Jonas Burgos will serve as the litmus test for the military’s commitment to human rights and the rule of law, Commission on Human Rights (CHR) chair Loretta Ann Rosales said yesterday.

Rosales made the statement in reaction to the move of the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG), on behalf of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), to file a Motion for Partial Reconsideration to the March 18 decision by the Court of Appeals that held Army Maj. Harry Baliaga responsible, and the AFP accountable, for the enforced disappearance of Burgos.

The military is asking the court to reverse its finding that the AFP, as an institution, failed to act with extraordinary diligence in the face of allegations that military personnel took Burgos on April 28, 2007.

“While everyone, including the military, is entitled to due process, asking the court for reconsideration on this specific point is a different thing and may be taken as an indication that the military as an institution is sticking to the story that Jonas fell victim to an internal CPP-NPA (Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army) purge,” Rosales said.

“That story has already been discredited by the court in view of the credible and straightforward testimony of the CHR witness that implicated Baliaga and other possible military officers,” she added.

Rosales said she asked Maj. Gen. Domingo Tutaan Jr., outgoing chief of the AFP Human Rights Office, to convey her request to AFP chief Lt. Gen. Emmanuel Bautista “to take the Jonas Burgos case as an opportunity to break cleanly from the past.”

“We have Oplan Bayanihan, thanks to Gen. Bautista’s pioneering efforts to anchor the AFP’s institutional transformation program on a solid human rights foundation. It is now up to him to put words into action by telling everybody up to the lowest corporal that continuing to stonewall and deny institutional accountability is a self-defeating stance that will not lead the military any closer to regaining the people’s trust,” Rosales said.

The Court of Appeals on March 18 allowed the eyewitness testimony implicating Baliaga in the disappearance of Burgos.

The CA also blamed the AFP and the Philippine National Police (PNP) for not extending full cooperation to the CHR investigation.

In response to the CA ruling, President Aquino directed the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to conduct a thorough investigation into the case.

The Supreme Court, in a Special Protection Order issued last April 13, tasked the Department of Justice (DOJ) to provide protection for Edita Burgos and her family.

The SC also ordered the AFP and PNP to comply with all requests for information by the CHR investigating team. The NBI was directed to provide all necessary and direct investigative assistance to the CHR investigation.

Rosales and Justice Secretary Leila de Lima committed their respective agencies to share information and work closely on the Burgos case and prosecute those involved for his disappearance.

The CHR investigating team has submitted to the NBI a list of points that would serve as the basis for providing direct investigative assistance.

“The CHR looks forward to a successful cooperation with the NBI, in view of the latter’s dual mandate from the Executive and the Judiciary. The ball is now with the security sector, whether they will cooperate or not,” Rosales said.