THE loss of a loved one is an occurrence that is never easy to process and is doubly so when a family member is violently abducted in broad daylight. For filmmaker JL Burgos, the abduction of his brother, Jonas Burgos in 2007 is a nightmare that remains unresolved to this day.
The documentary Alipato at Muog (Flying embers and a fortress) is JL’s effort to piece together pieces of the mystery. For nearly two decades the family, led by 80-year old mother Edita Burgos, has tried to find answers amid a seemingly inscrutable conspiracy.
“An overwhelming feeling came over me when I did not have a glimpse of even the shadow of my brother that night. No text. No phone calls. No brother came home. Jonas was abducted by state forces in 2007 while having lunch in a mall. It was a case of enforced disappearance and it was the start of the family’s nightmare,” JL said.
Using testimonials presented by their lawyer, together with a reporter, a former Justice Secretary and Human Rights Commission chair, and witnesses who agreed to appear on condition of anonymity, and combined with animation and never-before-seen footage of the family’s relentless search, JL pieces the stories together to uncover the truth, however painful, about his brother’s disappearance.
JL is no stranger to the predicaments of human rights victims. His body of work focuses on human rights and his two full-length documentaries, Mosquito Press in 2015 and Han-Ayan in 2017 tackled the injustices faced by people who went against the government.
For the director, Alipato at Muog is more than just a personal story. Through this work, he hopes to shine the spotlight on the unseen plight of human rights victims.
“Since the martial law regime of Marcos Sr, about 1,912 desaparecidos remain missing to date, according to human rights group Karapatan. But how can justice prevail when the crime is committed by the very institution that is mandated to protect its people? Where does one even turn to for answers? This is why this documentary is very personal to me. Telling Jonas’s story is telling the story of more than a thousand victims of enforced disappearance. Our nightmare is the nightmare of every family of a desaparecido,” he said.
“There are no illusions that this documentary will stop enforced disappearances. But it is my hope that this film will serve as both a step towards finding Jonas and a stride towards justice for all victims of enforced disappearance,” he added.
JL Burgos’s Alipato and Muog will be one of the films in the upcoming Cinemalaya Festival this August 2024.
