By ANTHONY IAN CRUZ
Malaya
March 3, 3008
TEN months after the abduction of her son Jonas, Edith Burgos began a seven-city speaking tour in the US on Saturday to bring to Americans and Filipino-Americans her plight and those of other victims of human rights abuses under the Arroyo administration.
Burgos, widow of Malaya founding publisher and press freedom icon Joe Burgos, started her speaking tour in New York Saturday night (Sunday afternoon in Manila) in a benefit dinner sponsored by the NY Committee on Human Rights in the Philippines (NYCHRP).
While in New York, Mrs. Burgos is also set to hold a private meeting with UN special rapporteur Philip Alston whose report on his 2007 visit to the Philippines tagged the Armed Forces as perpetrator of most of the extrajudicial executions alleged by human rights watchdogs.
“We are concerned that not enough is being done for Jonas’ case by the Philippine government,” said Jamie Mapa, NYCHRP member and first cousin of Jonas. “We have a moral responsibility to seek justice for the victims of human rights violations in our motherland.”
Jonas, an agriculture graduate, was abducted on April 28 last year allegedly by soldiers. Prior to his abduction, Jonas was providing organic farming training to peasants affiliated with the Alyansang Magbubukid ng Gitnang Luzon.
The Burgos family is holding the military responsible as one of the vehicles used by Jonas’ abductors had a license plate that was originally attached to a vehicle impounded at the camp of the Army’s 56th Infantry Battalion in Bulacan since June 2006.
After New York, Mrs. Burgos’ next stop is Washington DC where she will speak at the annual Ecumenical Advocacy Days spearheaded by Christian churches and denominations.
“Mrs. Burgos’ sharing of her plight in searching for her son will put a human face on the issue of political repression for the broad US public and help us strengthen our efforts to cut US aid to the illegitimate Arroyo regime,” said coordinator Katrina Abarcar of GMA Watch, which sponsored the tour.
Abarcar said the tour “seeks to raise awareness about the human rights, political and economic crises that Filipinos are currently facing under Arroyo’s administration. Our hope is that our efforts will mobilize US taxpayers to demand that our tax dollars stop supporting bloodshed in the Philippines.”
GMA Watch is a Filipino-American advocacy network that is actively participating in Church-led lobbying efforts to hold the Arroyo accountable for alleged widespread violations of human rights.
The lobby efforts and the resulting backlash among members of the US Congress have resulted in the introduction of “restrictive language” or preconditions to US military aid to the Philippines in 2008.
In her tour, Burgos will be speaking on behalf of the Desaparecidos, a national organization of families of victims of forced disappearances.
Mervyn Toquero, a representative of the National Council of Churches in the Philippines, is also joining Burgos and her daughter Virginia Ann.
Mrs. Burgos has appealed her son’s case before the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals through petitions for the writs of habeas corpus and amparo.