Disappearance of 2 activists a ‘professional operation’

MANILA, Philippines — The enforced disappearance of activists James Jazmines and Felix Salaveria Jr. was a “professional operation,” a human rights lawyer said on Monday, citing security camera footage taken early this month.

The 63-year-old Jazmines, younger brother of former National Democratic Front of the Philippines consultant Alan Jazmines, went missing on Aug. 23 after attending Salaveria’s 66th birthday party at a restaurant in Tabaco City, Albay province.

Salaveria went missing five days later on Aug. 28. Closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage presented by Karapatan at a press conference on Monday showed Salaveria walking home as a silver Toyota van stopped beside him and the men in the vehicle pulled him inside before they drove away.

READ: Group alarmed as youth activist remains missing

At a press conference by advocacy group Karapatan, lawyer Tony La Viña noted that the CCTV footage also showed two motorcycles stopping at nearby intersections at the same time as the van. The motorcycle drivers appeared to turn their heads to look around before they drove in the same direction as the vehicle with Salaveria forcibly taken onboard.

La Viña said there was no CCTV footage of Jazmines being kidnapped, but other video recordings were showing at least three “vehicles of interest” around the area—a Toyota Innova, a Toyota Hilux pickup, and a motorcycle.

According to him, eyewitnesses also said there was another Toyota silver van going around before Jazmines disappeared.

Screenshots of the footage showed the vehicles following the van like a “convoy,” La Viña said.

“What we want to establish here is this was a professional operation,” the lawyer said. “Military intelligence, police—[only] state-mandated agencies could do something as sophisticated as this.”

‘Surveillance’

Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay said there were “commonalities” in the disappearance of Jazmines and Salaveria and “many [other] cases like this.”

“Everything is highly organized. Meaning there are lookouts, there are reports of surveillance. In the case of James (Jazmines) and Jun (Salaveria), as far back as six months before they were taken, there were visible signs of them being subject [to] surveillance,” she said.

The number of vehicles involved also meant that this was quite an expensive operation, Palabay said.

“The [number] of cars means there are resources. The [number] of lookouts, the [number] of people involved—you would need a lot of money for th[is] operation because you have to pay a lot of people,” she said.

She also noted that when the plate numbers of two of the vehicles, VAA 5504 and NPR 5274, were checked, the corresponding documents were found to be registered to another car.

“[T]his modus of switching plate numbers, we saw this [in] the case of Jonila Castro and Jhed Tamano,” Palabay said, referring to two environmental activists who went missing in September last year before they were presented in a press conference where they denounced their abduction by state agents.

La Viña said he was considering asking the Supreme Court to have the government surface the two. But for now, Karapatan and other groups are urging agencies such as the Department of the Interior and Local Government, the Philippine National Police, and the Armed Forces of the Philippines to help locate the missing activists.

Appeal by kin

One of Salaveria’s daughters, Gab Ferrer, decried the lack of progress by the police in their search for her father.

“At first, I was positive that I would still see my father. But in the succeeding days, it became evident that this case will drag on,” she said.

“But when we visited the barangay where my father lives and the Tabaco City police, it was as if there was no sense of urgency, despite the fact that there was already CCTV footage [of Salaveria’s abduction].”

“I ask the police to do all that they can because they are the ones with the resources. This is their duty—to surface my father. Surface Felix and James,” Ferrer said.

Jazmines’ wife Corazon said, “We are not begging. We demand that those behind this abduction surface James and Felix.”

“We can’t see any reason for them to be taken, and if there was, let them be tried in court,” she said.

Marcos, Du30 records

According to a statement by Karapatan, Jazmines is a psychology graduate at the University of the Philippines in Diliman. He was information officer of the League of Filipino Students from 1977 until the early 1980s, then executive director of the Amado V. Hernandez Resource Center from 1984 to 1988. He served as an information officer of Kilusang Mayo Uno from 1988 to 1992.

Salaveria, a sociology major at the University of the East in Manila, is a founding member of Cycling Advocates, a group that promotes biking. He is also a founding member of indigenous rights groups Tunay na Alyansa ng Bayan Alay sa mga Katutubo and Kabataan para sa Tribung Pilipino.

Karapatan said there have been 13 enforced disappearances, 53 frustrated extrajudicial killings, and 89 extrajudicial killings under President Marcos’ administration since July 2022.

Under the previous administration of Rodrigo Duterte from July 2016 to June 2022, there were 21 cases of enforced disappearances, 574 cases of frustrated extrajudicial killings, and 422 extrajudicial killings, the group said.

Karapatan further noted the rising cases of extrajudicial killings at 60 this year, from 41 the previous year, and enforced disappearances at 11 this year, including the disappearance of Jazmines and Salaveria, from four in 2022. —with a report from Inquirer Research