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Witnessing

How far and different is this kind of being a witness in a man-made judicial system from the witnessing for love called for by Christ

Isn’t it funny that one accused of lying is called upon to tell the truth?

Last Monday, I took the witness stand in a Regional Trial Court in Quezon City. Together with ten individual human rights defenders, among whom is a priest, two nuns and a lay consecrated person and three organizations, we are being accused of attesting to a falsehood in our verification certificates in relation to the petitions for writ of amparo and habeas data, which we filed with the Supreme Court on May 6, 2020.

The crime is called perjury or, in simple language, lying under oath.



The accuser, retired general Hermogenes Esperon, claims we deliberately and maliciously lied when we verified that the organization, Rural Missionaries of the Philippines, was a duly registered organization at the time of the signing of the verification when he claimed its registration was already revoked.

Upon the testimony of the president of the RMP, they honestly believed that the matter was resolved when they submitted a board resolution re-registering the RMP. Plus yearly documents required were submitted and duly received during the period when they were supposed to be not registered anymore. The perjury case was filed by a respondent in the Petition for the writ of amparo and habeas data.

I am familiar with hearings and have taken the witness stand a number of times when I filed a petition for the writ of habeas corpus in our search for my missing son, Jonas Joseph Burgos.

The case heard in the Court of Appeals took more than seven years, concluding in the Supreme Court’s resolution that:

  • Jonas was indeed a victim of enforced disappearance
  • the Philippine Army of the Armed Forces of the Philippines is responsible for Jonas’ abduction
  • Harry Baliaga et al (a colonel of the Philippine Army at that time) were accountable for Jonas’ disappearance
  • the Armed Forces of the Philippines was ordered by the Supreme Court to return Jonas to his family
  • information and personnel that had to do with the abduction should be made available to me
Author Edita Burgos holds a photograph of her missing son, Jonas Burgos, during a demonstration to call for justice for victims of enforced disappearances in the country during the All Souls’ Day observance in 2018. (Photo by Jire Carreon)
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All these were granted by the Supreme Court in aid of finding my son, a rare victory in Philippine courts in enforced disappearance cases.

After more than seven years of weekly or thrice monthly hearings where we religiously and determinedly pursued every clue and link, would anyone logically hope that Jonas would still be returned alive and well to us?

Only a few, mostly the family and close friends, hoped that the resolution of the Supreme Court would finally restore Jonas to us and shed light on the truth about what really happened to him. But as they say “We won the battle but lost the war.” The court ruled in our favor, but Jonas was not surfaced and to this date, more than 15 years after, my son is still missing and the truth remains to be concealed.

In the past, hearings of many cases filed against my late husband, Jose G. Burgos Jr., were all occasions for the whole family to be present. This was because that was the only time we could see and talk to the accused who was jailed and placed in solitary confinement after the raid of the “We Forum” office on Dec. 7, 1982.

Along with my husband, who was publisher-editor of the “We Forum” and “Malaya” opposition newspapers during the martial law period, were my brother, brothers-in-law and the columnists of the newspapers. More than 40 suits were filed against him. Some newspapers report that there were more than 100 cases filed.

I remember, our private joke was that he was the best dressed newspaperman in the country with more than 40 suits. At that time, newspapermen were notoriously known to not dress appropriately for whatever occasion. Denims, t-shirts or bush jackets were their regular outfits even in formal occasions.

Jose G. Burgos Jr. poses for the camera with his wife, Edita Burgos, during the early years of their marriage. (Photo courtesy of the Burgos family)

In these hearings the witnesses were produced and presented by the state. And on many occasions, we cringed at the lies uttered by the witnesses, which were obviously ridiculous they could not have happened at all.

With these incidents related to court hearings, emanating from attempts by the dictator carried out by his military, to suppress our freedoms, and being victims of enforced disappearance, naturally our experience was unpleasant. It is no wonder, our anticipation of taking the witness stand, this time, where I am one of the accused, was negative and nervy.

By nature, I have the tendency to over-prepare for instances where I need to speak out. But how does one prepare to be a witness?

The first and the best preparation is prayer. Having been formed to tend towards silence and solitude we sought who else but Him who “renews the face of the earth.” Since it is He who “enkindles in us the fire of His love,” the prayer could not be exclusive or only for companions and defenders but inclusive of all, inside and outside of the court, including the bully, the tormentor, the umpire and the arbiter.

To study the facts, the dates, the circumstances, the happenings were not difficult because a chronology could easily be drawn. We did this, having in mind the age-related deficiency of forgetting dates and names.

The support and assistance of the legal team diminished the uncertainties emanating from legal jargon and all the advice was absolutely relevant and appropriate.

In the course of the preparations, what surfaced prominently, was the motivation in the heart. What would be the best antidote to perjury? Simply, it would be honesty or telling the truth. A resolve secured by an oath “to tell the truth and nothing but the truth” was declared even before the session.

Easier said than done.

The author, Edita Burgos, OCDS, join friends and families of victims of martial law abuses under the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos Sr. in offering candles, flowers, and prayers at the Bantayog ng mga Bayani in Quezon City on May 21, 2022. (Photo by Mark Saludes)

In the witness stand, one gets a sense of being suspected as saying untruths, even before she can answer the question. In the witness stand one gets a sense of being slowly thrust into a spot where she does not have a choice but to give the answer desired by the one questioning, which is not necessarily the whole truth. In the witness stand, one gets a sense of being deliberately confused with roundabout premises, which in the end do not have any bearing on the actual question. These make the witness wonder, Is it the truth that is desired or is it something else?

The consequence is that even before any question is asked, your alert level is heightened. Cautious, slow and deliberate became the conscious defense, although it is believed that spontaneity convinces more than studied responses.

Shouldn’t all court proceedings for that matter be guided by the principle that the judicial process finds its relevance only when the aim is to find the truth regardless of the crime?

If this question were asked: Why do you say you did not lie deliberately in your verification certificate? I would have had a ready answer: “Sir, it is because lying would offend God, and I wouldn’t do that because I value deeply my friendship with Him.”

Instead I was asked why I believed the sisters did not deliberately lie and my answer was, I am close to many religious and I know for a fact that it is in their nature not to lie because they believe and obey the Word.

The Lord hates liars, Proverbs 12;22, nuns know this. And for those who asked, it would be good for them to know that Revelation 21:8 says how liars are punished, “their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

How far and different is this kind of being a witness in a man-made judicial system from the witnessing for love called for by Christ.

Edita Burgos is a doctor of education and a member of the Secular Order of Discalced Carmelites. Gunmen — believed to be soldiers — abducted her son Jonas Burgos in Manila in April 2007. He is still missing.

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