Witness: Jonas talked to abductors

Missing activist Jonas Burgos talked to his abductors for 20 minutes in a fastfood outlet at a Quezon City mall just before he disappeared, a witness said yesterday.

Elsa Agasang, who was acting supervisor of the Hapag Kainan restaurant when Burgos was allegedly abducted on April 28, testified during the continuation of Burgos’ habeas corpus hearing at the Court of Appeals yesterday.

Agasang, 25, told the court  that she saw four men surrounding Burgos, who was seated at his table in the restaurant’s annex, and talking to him for about 20 minutes.

Agasang, who was then standing at the restaurant’s counter, then heard Burgos saying in Filipino, “Call the manager of this fastfood and I will tell him where I will be taken.”

She said the four men then grabbed Burgos by the arms and forcibly took him out of the restaurant. But before he was taken out of the establishment, Burgos faced her and said he was just an activist.

Agasang said Burgos then shouted, “Aktibista lang ako” (I am just an activist) three times before he was dragged out of the fastfood.

When Justice Enrico Lanzanas asked her if Burgos appeared to be asking for help, Agasang said “yes.”

Asked by Lanzanas why she did not notify the security guards of Burgos’ abduction, Agasang said she could not find any security guard near the fastfood and there were only two waiters on hand. She added that as supervisor, she could not leave the establishment and that the nearest telephone was in the kitchen.

Agasang also testified that she talked to a woman seated inside the fastfood who admitted having known the four men who were then talking to Burgos.

Agasang said that two hours after the incident, two unidentified security guards went to their restaurant and asked for her name. She said the guards only jotted down her name but not the details of the incident she told them about.

When asked by Justice Remedios Fernando why she did not report the incident to the mall’s security or the police even after work, Agasang said she did not know how to react to the incident and that nothing else happened.

The habeas corpus case was filed by Burgos’ mother, Edita, who said she believes Lt. Cols. Noel Clement and Melquiades Feliciano, former commanders of the 56th Infantry Battalion, are the principal suspects in her son’s abduction.  – Mike Frialde