The Philippines
Submission to the UN Universal Periodic Review
First Session of the UPR Working Group
March 2008

Main issues of concern:

Extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances

Jonas Burgos is a farmer and labour activist, 36 years of age, who was abducted 28 April 2007 outside the Ever Gotesca Mall in Quezon City. Witnesses reported that gunmen dragged him from a restaurant in the mall to a Toyota Revo waiting nearby, the license plate of which was traced to a vehicle impounded in a military camp in Bulacan in 2006.

Jonas is a member of Alyansa ng Magbubukid ng Bulacan ([AMB] Alliance of Farmers in Bulacan), a local chapter of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas ([KMP] Movement of Farmers in the Philippines). Press reports say the Army was investigating rumors that Burgos had been a leader in several armed political organizations, such as the New People’s Army (NPA). The KMP has confirmed Burgos’ membership, denying any involvement of his with the NPA, however the AMB itself has been declared an ‘enemy of the state’ by the military.

Edita Burgos, Jonas’ mother, blames the military for the disappearance of her son. In November 2007, she traveled to Geneva to file a formal complaint before the United Nations Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearance (UN WGEID)

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