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Kin of disappearance victims to hold march on Saturday


MANILA, Philippines — Relatives of victims of enforced disappearances will hold a march in Manila on Saturday to mark the International Day of the Disappeared. Edita Burgos, whose activist son Jonas disappeared in Quezon City in April 2007, will join the march from the University of Santo Tomas to Plaza Miranda in Quiapo. "We call on those responsible to surface all victims of enforced disappearances soonest," she said in a statement posted on the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines website (www.cbcpnews.com) Wednesday. The march will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday to commemorate the International Day of the Disappeared. Mrs. Burgos said she and relatives of Filipino activists who have disappeared without a trace are still hoping they will be told of the truth of what happened to their loved ones. Jonas Burgos has not been seen since April 28, 2007 when gunmen dragged him from a restaurant in Ever Gotesco Mall along Commonwealth Avenue, Quezon City. Other victims' relatives said their loved ones vanished without a trace. One was looking for her father, a labor leader, at the height of a strike at a multi-national soda company in 1987. Another mother from Angeles City said her son was a simple tricycle driver abducted by still unidentified men over a year and a half ago. Fr. Eliseo Mercado, Jr. said the desaparecidos were common in Latin America, particularly in Argentina, Chile and Bolivia. "Unlike in some countries where dictators were held accountable, in the Philippines there is no closure whatsoever," Fr. Mercado said. He added that a religious non-government organization known as Religious of the United Nations has made their presence felt both in New York and in Geneva. "There's definitely no room for desaparecidos today," he said. Mercado compared the plight of Mrs. Burgos and her companions with the grieving relatives of the missing passengers of the ill-fated M/V Princess of the Stars. "The passengers' relatives want to bury their loved ones in order for them to have closure to the tragic incidents," Mercado said. He said this is what Sulpicio Lines cannot understand. He added the relatives will always be hoping against hope their kin are still alive. — - GMANews.TV
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