|
“HE
appeared to be struggling as he was being dragged away
and in the middle of the restaurant he shouted three
times that he was just an activist while he was being
held by the arms. . . .As he passed by around two meters
away from me, he looked at me in the eye and said, ‘I am
just an activist.’ His face appeared to be asking for
help.”
This was
how management trainee Elsa Agasang narrated Jonas
Burgos’s final minutes at the Hapag Kainan restaurant,
where she worked, before he was taken away by still
unidentified men at the Ever Gotesco Mall in
Commonwealth, Quezon City on April 28.
Agasang
took the witness stand for more than two hours at
Monday’s continuation of the hearing on the petition for
habeas corpus, where she testified before the Court of
Appeals’ Eighth Division that four men and a woman were
responsible for Burgos’ abduction.
She
recounted during direct examination by the petitioner’s
lawyer Verena Villanueva that one of the abductors even
asked permission from her to talk to Jonas, who was then
having his meal at the extension portion of the
fast-food restaurant at past noon that Saturday.
Agasang,
who was standing at the restaurant’s counter, then heard
Burgos saying, “tawagin mo ang manager nang
kainan na ito at sa kanya ako magpapaalam kung saan ako
dadalhin” (call the manager of this fast-food
restaurant and I will tell him where I will be taken).
After 20
minutes of engaging Jonas in a conversation, Agasang
said she saw the men grab Jonas by the arms and take him
out of the restaurant.
When
Justice Enrico Lanzanas asked her if Burgos appeared to
be asking for help when he looked at her, Agasang said
“yes.”
Agasang
said many customers witnessed what transpired but nobody
took the risk of helping him. She added that she was not
able to seek assistance from security guards of the mall
as she was too busy attending to an estimated “50 to 60”
customers at that time.
She
explained that she is not allowed to leave her post,
being the supervisor of the restaurant.
Lawyer
Ricardo Fernandez, who with former UP law dean Pacifico
Agabin and Villanueva is representing the
Burgos
family in the case, said mall security guard Larry
Marquez will be presented on Friday to testify that
Burgos was forced into a maroon Toyota Revo with plate
number TAB-194 by his abductors. Marquez had given the
Quezon City police probers a statement that he had
jotted down the license plates of the abductors’
vehicle.
It was
found out later that the license plate number is
registered to an Isuzu utility vehicle model 1991 owned
by one Mauro Mudlong of Norzagaray, Bulacan.
Mudlong’s vehicle was seized by a joint team of the
Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR)
and the 56th Infantry Battalion of the Army in June 2006
for illegal logging, and is now part of the evidence in
a case filed against Mudlong.
Investigation revealed that the vehicle was impounded by
Pfc. Jose Villena and Cpl. Castro Bugalan, both of the
56th IB, prompting the Burgos family to accuse the
military of being behind Jonas’ abduction.
The
military claimed that the license plate had been missing
from the headquarters of the 56th IB since November
2006.
Aside
from Agasang, petitioner Edita Burgos, mother of Jonas,
also took the witness stand and insisted that government
agents were behind her son’s disappearance.
“It’s
not possible that the license plate can be stolen
without the knowledge of those in the [military]
building,” Mrs. Burgos said, referring to the facility
inside the 56th IB, where she and her relatives had gone
sometime in May for an ocular inspection. The building,
she said, directly overlooks the parking lot where
Mudlong’s vehicle was parked, and anyone who tries to
get near, possibly to steal the license plates, can be
seen.
Burgos
said former 56th IB commanders Lt. Col. Noel Clement and
Lt. Col. Melquiades Feliciano should be held liable for
Jonas’ disappearance. |
