Breakthrough in Jonas case in a week - Ebdane

Defense Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. and Armed Forces chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr. have assured that a breakthrough will be reached in a week’s time on the case of peasant leader Jonas Joseph Burgos who was snatched last month from a Quezon City mall. The two officials made the commitment to Akbayan Rep. Loretta Rosales following a meeting at Camp Aguinaldo last Friday in the middle of an ongoing police and military investigations on the case. “I am happy to note that Secretary Ebdane and General Esperon were very cooperative. [They] told me that they will do everything so that hopefully next week we can have something a little more concrete with respect to [the] Jonas Burgos kidnapping," said Rosales. Burgos was abducted by still unidentified men last April 28 at the Ever Gotesco mall in Quezon City. The militant Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas immediately blamed military intelligence agents as behind the abduction. Weeks later, an environment official said the license plate of the vehicle used in the kidnapping belongs to an XLT jeep that had been impounded at the headquarters of the 56th Infantry Battalion in Bulacan for illegal-logging. Rosales said he met with Ebdane and Esperon “to get the cooperation of the AFP" on the solution of the case. While she said that the PNP is on top of the investigation, Rosales said the AFP can “always cooperate." “That’s very specific, that’s very immediate," said Rosales, referring to her soliciting of the military’s cooperation in the search for Burgos, son of the late Malaya publisher and press freedom icon Jose Burgos. Rosales also said she discussed with Ebdane and Esperon the wave of extra-judicial killings, which is largely being blamed by some sectors to the AFP. “Extra-judicial killings also were addressed and I think there was a consensus that something should be done about it," said Rosales without elaborating what were the measures that should be sought to stop the killings. “You must remember that the President came out with an order that at least before the end of the year, 20 cases should be resolved. So that is something concrete to start with. We operate and we work with candor," she added. Asked for an update on the investigation on the Burgos case, Esperon said the Philippine National Police is pursuing the criminal component of the probe. He said the military investigation is on the administrative aspect of the case. “The investigation of the provost marshal is on the administrative aspects of the plate number. Whatever the findings will be, that could be used by the Philippine National Police. So we are trying to come up with the final report so that we will know how to act further on that," he said. The 56th IB commander, Lt. Col. Melquiades Feliciano, had been relieved from his post pending the investigation although officials have said that the license plate had been stolen from the XLT jeep while the battalion was on training between November and March. Army chief Lt. Gen. Romeo Tolentino has also ordered an inventory on all license plates in Army camps as a result of the incident to ensure that no other plate numbers have fallen into the hands of unscrupulous individuals. - GMANews.TV