“On April 28, 2007, 36-year-old Jonas Burgos was having lunch in a mall in Quezon City when six armed men and a woman, who identified themselves as police, forcibly took him, dragging him like a pig and forcing him into a vehicle. As he was being abducted, witnesses reported him shouting, ‘Aktibista lang po ako (I am just an activist)!’”

That seems like a synopsis for a thriller or action film, but it is culled from the website of the documentary “Alipato at Muog” as a real account of a farmer-activist who has not been seen since his abduction.

Jonas, a son of the late press freedom fighter Jose G. Burgos Jr., is one of the estimated 1,913 recorded victims of enforced disappearance from 1972 to the present, according to the human rights organization Karapatan.

His family’s search for him, eventually linking up with the families of other victims of enforced disappearance, is the narrative thread that the filmmaker JL Burgos wove into “Alipato at Muog” (Flying Embers and a Fortress).

JL is Jonas’ younger brother and the constant companion of their mother, 80-year-old Edith Burgos, in following leads on his disappearance, visiting various military camps, conferring with lawyers and potential witnesses, writing appeals to government and military officials. JL recorded all these with his video camera in order to have a document ready and available for future legal proceedings. 

He gathered hundreds of hours of footage (or digital data) which he edited into a 96-minute documentary. 

Recognition

“Alipato at Muog” won a Jury Prize in the 20th Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival. This August it won Best Film in the Famas Awards, plus a Best Director for JL. It is the second documentary to win a Famas Best Film award, the first being Alyx Arn Arumpac’s “Aswang” in 2020, which focuses on the extrajudicial killings during the Duterte administration.

But before it received the accolades, “Alipato at Muog” was rated X by the censors, which said the film tends to undermine the people’s faith in government. In his letter of appeal to the Movies and TV Review and Classification Board, JL said there is nothing wrong in resisting a wrong: “Walang mali sa paglaban; may mali, kaya may lumalaban.” The board eventually changed the X rating to R-16, saying that “a more mature viewer is necessary to understand, dissect, and grapple with the serious issues presented in this documentary, without compromising their own faith and confidence in the government.”

It was not an easy film to make, according to JL. A filmmaker absorbs the energy and emotion of the story, especially the visual elements, and he recalled that with his two other documentaries on human rights, he could simply step back, go home to debrief, and calm himself.

“But not in ‘Alipato at Muog,’” JL said. “The emotions lingered, stayed for 24 hours, for the duration of making the film.” 

He cited the aftermath of his coverage of the acquittal of retired general Jovito Palparan of the kidnapping of farmer Raymond Manalo. “I had to stop the car because I was crying uncontrollably,” he said. 

Assembling the shots and the interviews took about a year: “I had to stop every now and then because I was having breakdowns.” 

JL’s support system, which includes his mother Edith, siblings Sonny and Peachy, partner Mona, and comrades in cultural work and human right advocacy, helped him sail through. With the Cinemalaya grant to his Pulang Langgam Media Productions and support from GMA News and Public Affairs, the film saw fruition, earned critical praise, and was received warmly in its exhibitions both in cinemas and in campus tours. 

When “Alipato at Muog” was awarded the Special Jury Prize in the 20th Cinemalaya, members of the audience cheered loudly and broke into tears. When it won Best Film and he was announced Best Director in the last Famas Awards, JL could only post a shout of joy on his FB page.  

It may sound like a cliché but he was happy enough to be nominated, JL said. What is more important, he said, is “the recognition of the story of Jonas, of the desaparecidos, and the call for justice.”

More to come

JL’s work includes “Rights,” an anthology of various filmmakers’ responses to the abduction of Jonas and the push for human rights advocacy. It received an X rating and was not screened commercially. “But we showed it in alternative spaces and platforms,” he said. “Rights” may now be viewed on YouTube.

Another of his films is “Han-ayan,” the story of Michelle Campos and other Lumad-Manobo wishing to go home to their ancestral land in Surigao del Sur. They were forced to leave in 2015 after their leaders were killed in what is now known as the Lianga Massacre. 

Moving forward after the Famas, JL plans to do more films on the poor, oppressed and marginalized. 

“I am hoping that after the recognition of ‘Alipato at Muog,’ producers and funders will see the importance and need to make films that expose the perpetrators of evil in society and make the status quo uncomfortable. One film at a time,” JL said.