PHILIPPINES: Forcible abduction and disappearance of five persons including a mother of two-month-old twin

[NOTICE: To facilitate your intervention of the urgent appeals issued by the AHRC, we have developed a new automatic letter-sending system using the “button” below. However, in this appeal, we could not include e-mail addresses of all the Philippines authorities. We encourage you to send your appeal letters via fax or post to those people. Fax numbers and postal addresses of the authorities are attached below with this appeal. Thank you.]

Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) deeply regrets to inform you the cases regarding the forcible abduction and subsequent disappearance of five more persons, including a mother of two-month-old twins, in separate incidents in March and April 2007. The whereabouts of the victims, namely Josephine Nogoy (32) of Tarlac, Alan Bumanglag of Cagayan, Jonas Joseph Burgos and his companion Melissa Reyes and another person (name unknown) of Quezon City, all in Luzon areas, have remained unknown. All of the victims were either members or have been closely involved in helping peasant groups prior to their abduction.

CASE DETAILS:

The information below are gathered from various sources, including the Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights (Karapatan), a human rights group based in Quezon City, Metro Manila.

At 1:00am on March 27, unidentified armed men onboard two separate vans had arrived at the house of Josephine Nogoy’s sister-in-law Divina Guevarra in Purok Masagana, Iba Village, San Jose. One of the vans is black in color while the other is dark brown or maroon. The vans did not bear any license plates with them. The perpetrators numbering around 15 were armed. They were wearing black long sleeves, bonnets and gloves and combat shoes, when they forced their selves in into the house split into two groups where the victim was visiting.

One group, which is composed of eight of men, forced their selves and started threatening by pointing their guns at Divina, her husband and their two children. The others were searching for something inside the house. Upon seeing Nogoy inside, they then forcibly took her into a van waiting outside the house at gunpoint. The armed men sped away taking Nogoy with them. Nogoy’s twin children were left behind the Guevarras custody.

At the time of incident, Nogoy was with her twin children visiting the Guevarras family. Not only the perpetrators did forced their selves into the Guevarras the other groups who are companies of those who took Nogoy likewise entered into the nearby house of Patricio family, the Guevarras neighbour. They also threatened and pointed guns at those inside the house asking for the whereabouts of Josephine.

In another incident, another victim Alan Bumanglag (age around in his 40s), a member of Kagimungan, the local chapter of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) in Cagayan, was also reported to have been abducted and disappeared on April 26. Prior to his disappearance, the soldiers attached to the 17th Infantry Battalion, Philippine Army allegedly took him inside their camp located in Tanglagan, Gattaran, Cagayan for questioning. He was interrogated for several hours and was only allowed leave there at around 2:00pm. It is reported, however, that three men were reportedly seen following him from the military camp. His whereabouts have been unknown since then.

Two days later in Metro Manila, on 28 April, three more persons were reportedly disappeared after they were allegedly forcibly abducted. According to the information, Jonas Joseph Burgos failed to arrive at their home as he was expected. He already informed his family that he is on his way to home and that he was just somewhere in SM North Edsa by sending SMS message. It was found out later that Burgos, who was with his companion Melissa Reyes and an unnamed person, could no longer be located.

Burgos had promised to arrive at his family’s place at around 6:00pm. Although his family kept sending text messages to his mobile phone to ask his whereabouts for all through the night, the family received a message from his mobile at 10:46am on the following morning on April 29 saying: “Sensya na, ligo lang” (I’m sorry, was just taking a bath).

The exchange of text messages continued with the victim’s family trying to find out about his condition but the supposed reply from the victims did not make any sense.  And when his family called him up, though they were able to speak with him but his voice sounded like he was drugged and his answers are not clear.  His family continued on checking him through SMS messages and by calling his mobile phone occasionally. His phone however was off from that whole night until the following morning, April 30.

The family of Burgos’ companion Reyes’, have likewise reported that she also failed to come home since April 28 evening.

At the time of incident, Burgos, who is a graduate of agriculture from the Benguet State University, had been giving agricultural technology training for members of the Alyansa ng Magbubukid sa Bulacan (AMB), a chapter of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP or Peasant Movement of the Philippines) for past nine years. The AMB and KMP are peasant organizations lobbying for the solution of agrarian issues in Central Luzon.  Prior to Burgos’ disappearance, several leaders and members of the AMB have already been victims of either killings or abductions allegedly committed by security forces in the past.

Burgos is the son of the late Jose “Joe” Burgos Jr., former publisher and editor of the We Forum and Malaya newspapers. The late elder Burgos’ publications are the pioneering alternative press during the Marcos regime. The elder Burgos was also an awarded journalist, a widely known civil libertarian and defender of press freedom until he died in 2003.

As of May 5, various sources reported about the abduction of Burgos, and conveying disappointments of his family about delay in the process of police investigation into disappearance of the victim. The victim’s brother, Jose Luis “JL” Burgos, told the media that they have yet received any information on the progress of investigation and the victim’s whereabouts from the authorities. The clue that the police have had so far is the license plate number of the car that was used to take the victims away.

According to the victim’s mother, Edith Burgos, they have received further information from several witnesses of her son’s abduction. Edith claimed having received a phone call from a man who told her that he should speak to a security guard at another shopping mall where her son was also seen. There has not been made substantial progress so far regarding the victim’s whereabouts.

SUGGESTED ACTION:

Please write letters to the concerned authorities requesting for their immediate intervention to effectively investigate in determining the whereabouts of these disappeared victims. The authorities must also ensure that the victims’ relatives are actively involved in this process. They must also consider providing protection and security for them if necessary.

Once again, please also renew calls to the Philippine government, in particular the Congress to enact the proposed law which considers acts of enforced disappearance as a criminal offence without delay. The enactment of the bill is an initial step and one of the many ways to ensure that cases of disappearance are properly investigated, adequate compensation and protection are afforded to the victims and their families, amongst others.

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