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DOJ to probe Army officer's link to Burgos disappearance
The Department of Justice is set to conduct a preliminary investigation into the Commission on Human Rights' findings that a junior Army officer was the "principal abductor" of political activist Jonas Burgos, who disappeared in 2007. In Memorandum No. 001, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima ordered Prosecutor General Claro Arellano to review the report the CHR submitted to the Supreme Court, which had ordered the commission to look into Burgos' disappearance. In its report, the CHR asked the Supreme Court to order the Department of Justice (DOJ) to file kidnapping/enforced disappearance, and/or arbitrary detention charges against 1st Lt. Harry Baliaga Jr. of the Army's 56th Infantry Battalion (IB) "as principal by direct participation in the abduction of Burgos." But at a press briefing on Tuesday, De Lima said her department will no longer wait for the Supreme Court's go-signal before adopting the CHR's recommendations. "Since the acts pertain to violations of the Revised Penal Code... and since there's a report, and there's evidence, and there are affidavits and official reports, then it is the duty of the DOJ [to conduct an investigation] whether or not a higher authority like the Supreme Court would order the DOJ to do it," said De Lima. Other recommendations Burgos, son of the late journalist and staunch anti-dictatorship fighter Jose Burgos, was abducted on April 28, 2007 allegedly by military personnel while he was having lunch at a restaurant inside the Ever Gotesco Mall in Commonwealth Avenue, Quezon City. His mother, Edita, asked the Court of Appeals to issue the writ of amparo, legal remedy granted by the court "through judicial orders of protection, production, inspection and other relief to safeguard one's life and liberty." But when the CA dismissed Edita's case against the soldiers believed to be behind her son's abduction, she elevated the matter to the Supreme Court. In June 2010, the Supreme Court ordered the CHR to conduct an extensive investigation into Burgos' disappearance. In compliance with the high court's directive, the commission submitted last March 15 its report that named Baliaga as Burgos' principal abductor. Aside from recommending the initiation of kidnapping/enforced disappearance, and/or arbitrary detention charges against Baliaga, the CHR also asked the Supreme Court to order the DOJ to conduct the following:
- Immediately cover witnesses Jeffrey Cabintoy and Elsa Agasang under the DOJ Witness Protection Program. Cabintoy and Agasang worked at the Ever Gotesco Mall restaurant where Burgos was allegedly abducted;
- File obstruction of justice charges against Emerito Lipio, Marlon Manuel, and Meliza Concepcion-Reyes "for giving false or fabricated information" to the police that Burgos was abducted by New People's Army rebels. The CHR added that the three had "willfully refused" to cooperate with the CHR’s probe.
- Review and determine the liability of officers and personnel in the Army’s 56th IB and 7th ID, "relative to the torture and/or other forms of ill-treatment of Edmund Dag-uman while he was in detention in October 2005."
