This documentary by JL Burgos took practically 17 years to complete, and each of those long years were literally his stations of the cross. From April 28, 2007, when Jonas Burgos was abducted by an Army unit led by then 1st Lt. Harry Baliaga and three other soldiers, until 2024, when the documentary was finally shown, the work is still incomplete. Until the disappeared Jonas surfaces, or is found, the work shall not be done.
“Alipato at Muog” is a chronicle of the frustrating search for Jonas, who was snatched in full view of customers at a restaurant in Ever Gotesco mall along Commonwealth Ave. in Quezon City, with Jonas shouting he wasn’t a rebel but merely an activist. No one moved as the abductors identified themselves as policemen. But Baliaga was eventually fingered as the team leader of the operation even as he denied to high heavens that he had nothing to do with the abduction. Later, Jonas managed to make calls on his cell phone, indicating he was near Camp Aguinaldo and was “taking a bath,” an indication he was given the “water cure,” a torture method perfected by the American soldiers against Filipino revolutionaries.
The headquarters of the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP) is in Camp Aguinaldo. ISAFP gets its personnel mainly from the Philippine Army (PA) and maintains counter-intelligence units to monitor foreign spies, including those in diplomatic missions. It assesses intelligence information and develops moles to penetrate groups believed to be hostile to the state. Its intelligence work covers data gathering with PA units and loyalty checks on officers and men involved in counterinsurgency operations.
When Edith T. Burgos publicly disclosed the abduction and demanded that then president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, the scenario builders at the Philippine Army (PA) devised an elaborate cover-up, from the allegation that the New People’s Army (NPA) ordered the abduction of Jonas for being a “military spy,” with two “ex-NPA” elements added to the broth. This story flamed out as both elements were not “ex-NPA” but people under military protection. Then the police came in, adding more yards to the yarn, tying the scenario in knots as the two, identified as Melissa Concepcion Reyes and Emerito Lipio, said they arranged a meeting with Jonas, whom they knew as “Ramon.”
Of course, “Ramon” was linked to a certain Lt. Abletes, an army officer that the 56th Infantry Battalion suspected was working with the NPA. That this Abletes was arrested and kept in the doghouse for a month by his own battalion before the disappearance of Jonas Burgos doesn’t wash. Only Reyes and Lipio sing the same tune. The Abletes story is internal to the military, but they can use it to craft a cloak-and-dagger plot, and save their betters from prison. And craft they did, as the detained Abletes was a comrade to NPA guerrillas and “Ramon” was the convenient link between the Red fighters and Abletes, the “Red fighter” in fatigues. The Reyes and Lipio narrative has no probative value. It can only happen to be true once the stars tumble from the sky and the seas would suddenly run dry, as Brenda Lee croons.
Yet, what should raise questions is the fact that Jonas Burgos worked with farmers in Bulacan, where the Burgoses also have a farm, and by being close to the farmers and helping them secure titles to their land, Jonas stirred the hornets’ nest. The testimony of a farmer who was arrested and tortured by his captors indicate that military intelligence was after Jonas, who was integrating with the farmers and raising concern among the Bulacan landlords in San Miguel, Norzagaray, Dona Remedios Trinidad and nearby towns. Farmers never betrayed Jonas, whom they said was known to everybody and helped peasants immensely. No amount was big enough for them to link Jonas with the NPA.
The 56th Infantry Battalion also cannot explain why the plate number TAB 194 was tacked to the vehicle of Jonas’ abductors when it was registered to a Toyota van impounded by the battalion at its headquarters in Bigte, Norzagaray, Bulacan. The lame excuse was that it was stolen at the camp secured by soldiers. JL Burgos couldn’t believe it. The robbery cannot be a plot of the NPA for the “JL Burgos purge.” But it fits nicely to the scenario that some guys delivered the plate number for a covert operation that targets a farmer advocate. The witnesses saw that plate number in a new vehicle and swore it is unlike the red plates they see on police cars and army vehicles.
Jonas Burgos is a case that is as clear as day. The facts, circumstances and legal theory posited by lawyers seeking the whereabouts of Jonas Burgos point to the military as the culprits. Yet, the military officers escaped the gauntlet. Baliaga was acquitted after the witness under the custody of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) was introduced to a woman who happened to be married to a general. This broke the cover for the witness, who escaped from the CHR’s bumbling officials as he feared he was being set up. With the witness gone, Baliaga went scot-free, his case dismissed. Gen. Eduardo Ano also had his case dismissed, along with Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr. and other key intelligence men and planners who lead the cleaners who do the dirty job. In CIA parlance so common among spooks, the cleaners are the assassins.
