Resources
Last updated Aug 20th, 2009
Below you will find resources to other human rights campaigns, projects, and organizations that are striving to bring attention to the human rights crisis in the Philippines.
Karapatan (Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights)
KARAPATAN is an alliance of individuals, groups and organizations working for the promotion and protection of human rights in the Philippines. Its founders and members have been at the forefront of the human rights struggle in the Philippines since the time of Marcos’ martial law regime.
KARAPATAN was founded by its member organizations in 1995 (when the former umbrella organization no longer satisfied the needs of its member organizations and of the people’s organizations it was supposed to serve). Set up to respond to the needs of its member organizations, KARAPATAN has very close linkages with them.
The DESAPARECIDOS was formed to cater to the need of a support system of families who are victims of enforced disappearances; cases rooting from the Marcos dictatorship up to the present administration. The organization’s battle cry is to surface the victims, their loved ones and stop disappearances; justice to all victims of human rights violations. The organization was formed in 2005.
We are families and friends of JONAS BURGOS. This site will be the repository of updates, statements and stories relevant to the abduction of JONAS. We hope that the search will end soon. Until then, we will remain steadfast in searching for JONAS BURGOS regardless if we become victims of human rights violations in the process. Please read on and help keep the embers of hope burning. Mabuhay po kayo!
Surfacing: A Photo Project On the Lives of Families of Desaparecidos.
They were activists, wanting to change society by arousing and organizing amongst the masses. They were ordinary civilians, going about their daily lives. Suddenly, they disappear. Desaparecidos is the Spanish word meaning “the disappeared.” It was coined in Latin America where thousands became victims of enforced disappearance implemented by tyrannical regimes.
Enforced disappearance is “committed by government officials or by organized groups acting in behalf, or with the support, consent or acquiescence of the government,” according to the International Convention for the Protection of all Persons against Enforced Disappearance. It is among the most common human rights violations committed in the Philippines, often by suspected military agents in the name of counter-insurgency. Under the administration of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, there have been 184 desaparecidos, the highest since martial law.
SURFACING, a photographers’ initiative done in cooperation with the Free Jonas Burgos Movement and Desaparecidos, is an effort to create and sustain public awareness on the issue of enforced disappearances. It shows the lives and struggles of 14 families of the disappeared, as well as that of the disappeared.
“A photograph is an expression of absence and a form of transport,” says writer John Berger. Let these photos express the pain and injustice of the desaparecidos’ absence and transport us to the reality that we need to face and collectively challenge.
Luisa Posa-Dominado (Luing, as she is often called) was abducted by suspected military elements on April 12, 2007 while traveling with activist companions Nilo Arado and Jose Ely “Leeboy” Garachico on their way home from Antique, Philippines. They were on the road when their path was cut off by a van and whose passengers with high-powered weapons started shooting in Luing’s direction. Leeboy was hit, puncturing his lungs. The armed men then alighted the van and dragged Nilo and Luing out of their vehicles and into the van.
Luing and Nilo remain missing up to this day.