QUEZON CITY – Where there is darkness, bear the light. Free Jonas Burgos Movement and Desaparecidos held a symbolic “Sunset Gathering” of families of the desaparecidos (missing) at Bantayog ng mga Bayani this evening.
Standing among a number photographs of those abducted and forcibly disappeared, torches and lanterns were lit and held by families, friends, and colleagues, as a symbolic act of bearing the light amidst the tireless search for the desaparecidos in the Philippines by State security forces.
Aside from being a belated commemoration of Jonas Burgos on March 29, the activity also opens the month when Jonas was abducted 17 years ago, on April 28, 2007. On this same day, it will be a year since Dexter Capuyan and Gene Roz Jamil “Bazoo” de Jesus were abducted in 2023.
Dexter and Bazoo belong to the 13 desaparecidos under the Ferdinand Marcos Jr. administration. The number does not include those who have been surfaced, but are likewise made to suffer from torture, whether physical or mental.
The number of desaparecidos also does not include those who were abducted since the martial law of Ferdinand Marcos, Sr., and all those disappeared under the regimes after the downfall of the dictatorship.
Desaparecidos believes that the consecutive cases of abductions and enforced disappearances since Marcos Jr. took office not only illustrates the continuing policy of one of the worst forms of human rights violations.
This is an attack on human dignity. It is an affirmation of the pervasive climate of impunity in the Philippines. We should call a stop to enforced disappearances, and to surface Jonas, Dexter, Bazoo, and the hundreds of desaparecidos from Marcos Sr. to Marcos Jr.