Fathers, both cyclists, are 14th and 15th desaparecidos under Marcos Jr.

MANILA, Philippines – The families and lawyers of James Jazmines and Felix Salaveria Jr. — friends and both cyclists — have mounted a surface campaign for the two, who were abducted within five days of each other at the end of August in their retirement homes in Tabaco City, Albay.

Both Jazmines and Salaveria have long histories of activism, the former being the brother of a peace consultant for the communist’s National Democratic Front. Human rights groups have counted them as the 14th and 15th victims of enforced disappearance or desaparecidos under the government of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

“We believe this was done by state agencies, or through the means that state entities do, because it is very similar to the circumstances of other abducted people that have either been surfaced or not yet been found,” human rights lawyer Tony La Viña, counsel for the Salaveria family, said in a press conference on Tuesday, September 3.

Abductions

It was Salaveria, a student activist during the martial law period under the dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos, who reported Jazmines’ disappearance on August 26. Jazmines had attended Salaveria’s birthday party at a restaurant in Barangay San Roque in Tabaco on August 23 but did not send his usual text to friends that he had gotten home safely.

Karapatan believes Jazmines was abducted that night, with Salaveria getting initial information that his friend “had been taken by a group of men and forced into a white van at around 10 pm,” according to Karapatan.

One of Jazmines’ abductors carried the victim’s bike after forcing him into a van, said Karapatan.

Salaveria was abducted five days later, on August 28, the incident caught by a barangay-owned CCTV. Footage showed men in civilian clothes forcing Salaveria into a silver van. Neighbors witnessed the incident.

La Viña said cops had visited the home later to take Salaveria’s belongings for “safekeeping.”

“The pattern, the circumstances, by which James and Felix disappeared really points to state forces,” said Julianne Agpalo of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers, counsel to the Jazmines family.

Who are James and Felix?

Like Salaveria, Jazmines was a student activist and a political prisoner during the martial law years. Jazmines eventually worked with the labor group Kilusang Mayo Uno until he became a freelance IT consultant, and was renting an apartment in Tabaco, a place that his wife Corazon said he liked. Jazmines had been in Tabaco for around a year.

Jazmines was known in his newfound community as a cyclist.

“We are very much worried because James is hypertensive and suffers from chronic leg pain due to nerve impingement in his spine. We call on the country’s duty bearers to help us locate James and bring him back to us safely,” said Corazon Jazmines, with whom James shares one child.

Jazmines is 63 years old and has been subjected to harassment and surveillance, especially when the Rodrigo Duterte government collapsed the peace talks with communists, for whom his brother Alan was a peace consultant.

Salaveria, 66 years old, was a founding member of indigenous peoples’ rights groups Tunay na Alyansa ng Bayan Alay sa mga Katutubo and Kabataan para sa Tribung Pilipino. But his daughter Felicia said they don’t recall their father being red-tagged.

In retirement, Salaveria was mostly involved with his cycling community and eco-waste management. Felicia said their father “fell in love with Tabaco and wanted to retire there.”

“He is a true believer in the benefits of bicycling and has taken us, his daughters, biking for as long as we can remember,” said Gab Ferrer, also Salaveria’s daughter.

“We cannot imagine why he is a threat to the government. That’s what we’re emphasizing to his abductors — why did you take him? His life was about gardening, cycling, and eco-waste,” said La Viña.

Looking for the desaparecidos

While Jazmines and Salaveria are the 14th and 15th desaparecidos under Marcos Jr., based on Karapatan’s count, there have been a total of 38 cases of enforced disappearances under the dictator’s son. The disparity of the count is because some have been surfaced, among them the four young activists in Cebu and Bataan who tricked their abductors that they would declare themselves rebel “surrenderees” if they were released.

Since the dictatorship in the ’70s, there have been 2,586 victims of enforced disappearances. More than half of those, or 1,915, are still missing.

The anti-enforced disappearance law, passed only 12 years ago in 2012, remains to be an ineffective measure to prevent or at least to help surface the missing, said Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay.

Under Section 8 of Republic Act No. 10353, any security agency of the government has the duty to issue a certification to the family, lawyer, human rights organization representative, or a journalist on the presence or even the absence of the missing person in their facilities.

Palabay said they invoked this right but local police in Albay, she said, “seemed unaware” of this law.

“Pero sa mga opisyal ng pulis na pinagtanungan namin, parang hindi nila alam na may ganung klaseng batas kahit mahigit isang dekada nang in existence ang anti-desap law. Nakakalungkot na sa mga insidente ng pagdukot na aming inasistehan, nagdededma-dedmahan, nagmamaang-maangan ang state forces na hindi nila alam ang batas,” said Palabay.

(The police officials we asked did not seem to know the law even though the anti-enforced disappearance law has been in existence for more than a decade. It’s sad, because in the cases of abductions we assisted, state forces pretend they are not informed of this law.) – Rappler.com