THE military may not be able to produce Jonas Joseph Burgos before the Court of Appeals (CA) on Friday, as the leadership of the Armed Forces maintained it does not have in its custody the missing agriculturist.

However, Army spokesman Lt. Col. Ernesto Torres said they would double their effort in locating the son of the late press freedom hero Joe Burgos Jr. in hopes of he can be found soon. The young Burgos was abducted April 28 while eating in a mall in Quezon City.

His mother Edita had filed a petition for habeas corpus with the Supreme Court two weeks ago, asking it to direct respondents—including President Arroyo as commander in chief and AFP chief of staff Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr.—to surface him. She maintained Jonas is being illegally kept by state forces after the license plates of the car where he was dragged to was later traced to an Army impounding area in Bulacan.

The High Court, after an en banc session Tuesday, issued the writ and directed the military to produce him before the CA on Friday at 10 a.m.

“If indeed Jonas Burgos is with the military, there is no reason for us not to bring him out,” Torres said, adding that they would have to confer with military lawyers on their actions before the Court tomorrow.

Burgos, some witnesses and even his family have claimed, was abducted by military intelligence agents.

The Army chief, Lt. Gen. Romeo Tolentino, recently claimed that he was a member of the New People’s Army, prompting his mother to say that if this was the military’s “finding,” then it had the motive to seize him. But the military has encouraged the view that Burgos’s comrades from the Left have abducted him in a possible intermovement feud.

The head of the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, Gen. Delfin Bangit, earlier said that they were willing to cooperate with the investigators.

In insisting that Burgos is not with them, Torres said the military has no policy or is “not in the business of abducting people.” Activist groups had said Burgos is just the 201st victim of a pattern of enforced disappearances in an undeclared “dirty war” against militants.

THE military may not be able to produce Jonas Joseph Burgos before the Court of Appeals (CA) on Friday, as the leadership of the Armed Forces maintained it does not have in its custody the missing agriculturist.

AFTER going through a nerve-wracking campaign for the speakership that bore fruit with his election for an unprecedented fifth consecutive term as Speaker of the House of Representatives, it seems the headaches of Lakas Rep. Jose de Venecia Jr. of Pangasinan are far from over.

THE Philippines, which is hosting this year’s Asean Regional Forum (ARF), has signified it is not offended by Washington’s gesture not to send its highest envoy, US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, to the Philippines. Instead, the US government is sending a former ambassador.

THE militant fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) on Tuesday criticized the International Oil Pollution Council (IOPC) for rejecting outright the second batch of damage claims in connection with the Guimaras oil spill.

SENATORS voiced concern over the United States’ decision to slash about $20 million from the annual military aid to the Philippines amid growing international anxiety over the Arroyo government’s poor progress in stopping extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances of political activists.

TWO planeloads of Marines from the Combat Support Service were flown to Basilan Wednesday to help hold back any attempt by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) to expand the theater of conflict outside of Basilan.