'Erap 5' agents may have abducted Jonas - mom

Military intelligence operatives who abducted five supporters of former President Joseph Estrada in Quezon City last year may have also abducted peasant leader Jonas Joseph Burgos and his two companions last April 28. Burgos' mother Edith said Friday she found striking similarities between the cartographic sketches of the suspects in the "Erap 5" case and those in the abduction of her son. "May nagpadala sa amin ng cartographic sketches sa Erap 5. May smilarity sa sketches yung dumukot. Grabe talaga, kung makita nila ang sketches it's really, really similar (We received a copy of the cartographic sketches of the suspects who abducted the Erap 5. I saw the similarities with the sketches of my son's abductors. It was striking. If you see the sketches, it's really, really similar)," Mrs Burgos in an interview on dzBB radio. Jonas, son of the late Malaya publisher Jose Burgos Jr, disappeared in Quezon City last April 28. Witnesses said armed men abducted him and two companions. On May 22 last year, joint military and police intelligence operatives seized Union of the Masses for Democracy and Justice (UMDJ) chair Virgilio Eustaqio, Ruben Dionisio, Jim Cabauatan, Dennis Ibona, and Police Officer 3 Jose Curameng from Eustaquio's Quezon City home. Dionisio claimed he was tortured to admit that he was a communist hitman while the four others claimed that they were also beaten up. Officials had claimed that Dionisio was identified by a self-confessed leftist gunman, Delfin de Guzman, who was arrested earlier by government security forces. Lt. Col. Henry Robinson, then the commander of the Military Intelligence Group (MIG) 15 responsible for the arrest of the "Erap 5," was then reported to have been relieved and subjected to investigation. No developments have since been made public of the investigation. In the same radio interview, Mrs Burgos contested Armed Forces chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr's claim that the AFP report on Jonas' disappearance will not help in resolving the case. Esperon had used this argument when he refused to release to the Burgos family a copy of its findings. "That's precisely the point. It's the only thing we can hold on to na ma-locate siya (so that we can locate him)," Mrs Burgos said. - GMANews.TV