Officials and alumni of the Benguet State University (BSU), including his mentors, added their voice in the demands of various sectors and personalities to surface Jonas Joseph Burgos, an alumnus of their institution, who was believed to have been abducted by military agents.

BY ARTHUR L. ALLAD-IW
Northern Dispatch
Posted by Bulatlat
Vol. VII, No. 19, June 17-23, 2007

LA TRINIDAD, BENGUET (247 km. north of Manila) – Officials and alumni of the Benguet State University (BSU), including his mentors, added their voice in the demands of various sectors and personalities to surface Jonas Joseph Burgos, an alumnus of their institution, who was believed to have been abducted by military agents.

“I join the various sectors in urging the abductors of Jonas to free him immediately,” declared Dr. Macario Cadatal in an interview with Nordis. Cadatal is the dean of the College of Agriculture in BSU where Jonas graduated in March 1996.

He added that the authorities have the responsibility to trace and free Jonas. If they had something against him, let justice follow its course by filing a case against him, if any, in court, he added. “I urged these abductors to free Jonas and other abducted individuals,” added Cadatal who was the adviser of Jonas in his thesis before he (Burgos) graduated in March 1996.

Burgos was allegedly abducted by armed men on April 28 in Quezon City while he was having lunch at the Hapag Kainan Restaurant at Ever Gotesco Mall in Commonwealth Avenue. The armed men dragged him in a van with plate number TAB 194. The plate number was traced to a van impounded by the 56th Infantry Brigade of the Philippine Army based in Norzagaray, Bulalcan.

Peasant rights advocate

Cadatal claimed that he knew Jonas to be an obedient student. As his thesis adviser, Cadatal was able to visit Jonas’s farm in San Miguel Bulacan. Jonas was then completing his thesis on the use of leguminous plants as fertilizers. Jonas practiced the use of leguminous plants as fertilizers in his family’s farm.

“He was a nice guy like his family,” added Cadatal who met Jonas’s mother and late father during his visit to Bulacan.

The Office of the Student Affairs (OSA) of BSU has no record of any infraction of rules that Jonas committed when he was a student. “We have no record of any violation by Jonas,” said Raymundo Pawid, chief of student development of OSA-BSU.

Another peasant youth organization based in BSU urged the administration of Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to act on the call to surface Jonas Burgos.

“As the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo should order that Jonas be surfaced and freed by his captors who are allegedly members of the military,” urged Azon Guiniden, president of the AMINTAKO (Anak ti Manalon iti Kordilyera. or Children of Farmers in the Cordillera).

Guiniden claimed that while it is true that Jonas is not from the Cordillera, he became a member of AMINTAKO because of his advocacy on peasant issues. “He shared his knowledge and skills by heading the Committee on Education of AMINTAKO,” she added.

Jonas helped in the deepening of the commitment of the youth to help uplift the lives of Cordillera farmers, like introducing the use of organic fertilizers instead of commercial fertilizers, added Guiniden.

A petition to free Burgos is posted in the internet. Movers call on all interested party to support the petition by sending their names at freejonasburgosmovement@yahoo.com. Arthur L. Allad-iw for Nordis/ posted by(Bulatlat.com)