Desaparecidos (Families of the Disappeared United for Justice) congratulates film director JL Burgos, the Burgos family and the entire crew of “Alipato at Muog” (Flying Embers and Fortress) for winning Best Picture and Best Director at the 73rd Filipino Academy of Movie Arts and Sciences (FAMAS) Awards Night on August 22.
“Alipato at Muog”, an independent documentary film released in 2024 as part of the Cinemalaya 20 Independent Film Festival, was nominated in the FAMAS Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Editing, Best Sound, and Best Visual Effects categories. It also won the Cinemalaya Special Jury Award in 2024 for its “effective use of the resources of documentary cinema to shed light on an actual case of enforced disappearance and reveal dark truths about human rights in the Philippines.”
“Alipato at Muog” is about the Burgos family’s painstaking search for missing activist Jonas Burgos, JL’s brother, who was abducted by state agents on April 28, 2007 at a restaurant in Quezon City. Jonas, the son of press freedom stalwart Jose Burgos and Karapatan Vice Chairperson Edita Burgos, has been missing for 18 years to date.
The film was initially given an X-rating by the Movie and Television Ratings and Classification Board (MTRCB), thus preventing it from being shown commercially nationwide for “undermining faith and confidence in the government.” The rating was later changed to R-16 after artist groups and human rights organizations decried that the MTRCB decision was an act of censorship.
“The back to back successes of ‘Alipato at Muog’ strengthen our resolve to continue searching for our disappeared loved ones and attain justice and accountability,” said Erlinda Cadapan, Desaparecidos chairperson, and mother of missing activist Sherlyn Cadapan, who was abducted with fellow activist Karen Empeño in Bulacan on June 26, 2006.
The 73rd FAMAS Awards Night was held a week before families of desaparecidos are to commemorate the International Day of the Disappeared on August 30.
There are currently 15 victims of enforced disappearance in the three years of the Marcos Jr. regime. Some 1,000 individuals disappeared under the Marcos Sr. dictatorship, 821 during the Corazon Aquino regime, 39 under Fidel Ramos, 26 under Joseph Estrada, 206 under Gloria Arroyo, nine under Benigno Aquino III and 20 under Rodrigo Duterte.