It has been almost three years since Edith Burgos, wife of the late Jose Burgos, Jr, founder of Malaya and regarded as a press freedom icon, last saw her son, Jonas.
On April 28, 2007, Jonas, father of an 18-month old girl, was abducted by unidentified men and a woman while having lunch at the Hapag Kainan restaurant in Ever Gotesco Mall in Quezon City. He was dragged into a waiting van and he has been missing since then.
Jonas is described in new reports as “activist-farmer”. Probably because at the time he was abducted, he was a member of the Alyansa ng Magbubukid sa Bulacan (AMB), a provincial chapter of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP).
Jonas studied agriculture at Benguet State University. He practiced organic farming in the Burgos family farm in Bulacan and shared his knowledge of it with other farmers.
Since the abduction almost three years ago, the Burgos family, headed by Edith Burgos has been searching relentlessly for Jonas. Mrs. Burgos has taken all the avenues — courts, police, military, morgues, government agencies including the Office of the President, international organizations and the streets — to look for her son.
She has endured hunger, insults and harassment.