Military accuses missing Burgos of being a top guerrilla leader

MANILA (AFP) - A prominent activist abducted by unknown men from a Manila shopping mall two months ago is a high-ranking communist leader, the military said Friday.

Jonas Burgos, 38, of the leftist group Alyansang Magbubukid (Peasant Alliance), was last seen being bundled by a group of unknown men into a car at a northern Manila shopping mall in April.

His family and human rights groups have accused the military of being behind his disappearance, charging that it was part of a systematic campaign against the left.

"We are quite definite he is a member of the NPA," military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Ernesto Torres told reporters, referring to the 6,200-member communist New People's Army (NPA), waging a decades-old rebellion.

"At the moment we can say that his (Burgos') rise to the organisation has been fast," he added.

Torres repeated the military's stance that it had no role in Burgos' disappearance.

The activist's mother Edith Burgos insisted the military had no proof her son was a guerrilla.

She added that even if he were, he was entitled to his constitutional rights.