Two Army troopers will be lined up for positive identification by witnesses as among those who snatched activist Jonas Burgos in a shopping mall in Quezon City last month.
Senior Superintendent Joel Coronel, chief of the police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), said they have asked Army Cpl. Castro Bugalon and Pfc. Jose Villena to stand in a police lineup to be identified by the witnesses in the kidnapping.
“If the witness will say they have not seen them, then it’s good for the two,” Coronel said.
Coronel stressed the police lineup would also help the two soldiers to clear up their names.
The two soldiers, both assigned at the 56th Infantry Battalion based in Norzagaray, Bulacan, have been tagged as among those who snatched Burgos while inside the Ever Gotesco shopping mall along Commonwealth Avenue in Quezon City last April 28.
Burgos, the son of the late journalist and press freedom fighter Jose Burgos Jr., has been missing since the incident.
“We are going to ask the witnesses to identify if they – Bugalon and Villena – were the ones who were seen dragging Burgos to a vehicle,” Coronel said.
Chief Superintendent Rodolfo Mendoza, deputy chief of the police Directorate for Investigation and Detective Management (DIDM), said police lineup is an investigation procedure accepted worldwide.
With a one-way mirror between two rooms, Mendoza said a police lineup enables a witness to identify a suspect or suspects from a group of individuals lined up in the other room.
Bugalon and Villena showed up at the office of the CIDG-National Capital Region and assured their full cooperation in the case.
Coronel said the two soldiers also allayed apprehensions that they are in hiding and belied allegations they have refused to cooperate in the investigation.
He noted the two soldiers admitted being the arresting officers of Mauro Mudlong for violation of the Forest Code. After impounding the vehicle with license plates TAB-194 bearing illegally cut logs, they maintained that they did not know what happened to the plates later reported as the getaway van’s in the abduction.
Coronel said the two vowed to give their formal statements today in the presence of their commanding officer.
“Their assurance of cooperation would surely mean a lot to the investigation in the case of Burgos,” Coronel said.
Investigators managed to establish that the missing license plates TAB-194 belonged to an AUV registered to Mauro Mudlong, which was impounded by Bugalon and Villena on June 24, 2006 allegedly for “transporting lumber without permit.”
The vehicle has since been in the custody of the 56th IB headquarters in Norzagaray.
The missing license plate was mentioned by witnesses as the supposed plate number of the vehicle used by the abductors of Burgos.
Witnesses claimed the suspects seized Burgos and covered his face with a sack before beating and dragged him into a maroon van parked outside the shopping mall.
Burgos is a member of the Alyansa ng Magsasaka sa Bulacan (AMB), an organization affiliated with the militant Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP).
Sen. Joker Arroyo, on the other hand, said the Burgos case should not be treated as another statistic by the government.
“The ghastly abduction of Jonas Burgos would become just another number in the unsolved crimes in the country if we do not try to dig deep into why it had happened at all,” Arroyo said.
Arroyo noted Burgos was not involved in any armed operations against the government.
“He is a passionate and active reformer like his parents, Edith and the late Joe Burgos, who practiced and lived with the reforms he advocated through positive acts,” he said.
The case has attracted international attention after Edith Burgos appealed for help to locate her missing son. – With Aurea Calica