Confidence building
In putting an end to unexplained killings and disappearances, the buck stops with the president and commander-in-chief. This was pointed out during the recent multisectoral summit on extrajudicial killings, by the United Nations’ rapporteur on human rights, and by other sectors worried over the continuing deadly attacks on left-wing militants and journalists.The commander-in-chief can show that she’s in command of her troops by ordering the military to come clean on the disappearance of activist Jonas Burgos, son of the late press freedom fighter Jose Burgos. Instead the government refuses to release even a report on the license plates used in the getaway van of the armed men who kidnapped Burgos at noon last April 28 from a crowded mall in Quezon City. The plates were later found on another vehicle at the camp of the Army’s 56th Infantry Battalion in Norzagaray, Bulacan. The vehicle was reportedly impounded from illegal loggers by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the 56th IB.
Bulacan accounts for one of the highest cases of militants killed or reported missing in what relatives say were enforced disappearances. It is part of the region that used to be under the command of Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan, tagged as a “butcher” by militants. But military officials in Central Luzon as well as in other regions have consistently denied involvement in extrajudicial killings, insisting that most of the purported victims were slain in legitimate counter-insurgency operations.
The government is not the only one to blame for the failure to ferret out the truth. Verifying the military’s version of what is happening has been complicated by the refusal of left-wing groups and relatives of alleged victims of state-sponsored killings and disappearances to cooperate with authorities in any investigation. But the refusal to cooperate is also rooted in a mistrust that is not entirely misplaced, given the military’s long history of human rights violations in the campaign against the communist insurgency. Gaining that trust and cooperation will require some confidence-building gestures on the part of the government. Coming clean on the case of Jonas Burgos would be a good start.
