Kin of missing activists in Albay ask SC for help

COURT INTERVENTION SOUGHT In separate petitions for writs of amparo and habeas data, the families of missing activists James Jazmines and Felix Salaveria Jr. asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to compel the government to surface their loved ones. —NIÑO JESUS ORBETA

The families of James Jazmines and Felix Salaveria Jr. filed separate petitions for writs of amparo and habeas data before the Supreme Court on Thursday to press their demand for authorities to release the missing activists.

“We believe that they are in the hands of security forces as the [closed circuit television camera] CCTV footage clearly shows that what happened was a police or military operation,” said Tony La Viña, the legal counsel for Salaveria’s daughters.

While both are legal remedies, a writ of amparo is available to persons whose “right to life, liberty and security” is violated or threatened while the writ of habeas data applies to those whose “right to privacy in life, liberty or security” is violated or threatened, according to the definition of the Supreme Court itself.

READ: Disappearance of 2 activists a ‘professional operation’

Jazmines and Salaveria went missing on Aug. 23 and Aug. 28, respectively, in Tabaco City, Albay. Karapatan, one of the human rights groups providing assistance to their families, said that “a few days after their abduction, a quick response team was organized and traveled to Bicol to investigate the incident.”

Vehicles of interest

In September, the families and their lawyers, as well as Karapatan, held a press briefing in which they presented CCTV footage obtained during their investigation. One showed Salaveria being grabbed by men inside a silver Toyota van which was followed by two men riding separately on motorcycles.

While there was no CCTV of Jazmines during his abduction, several “vehicles of interest” were observed in the area where he would later disappear, including a silver Toyota van, which traveled in a convoy.

Karapatan also said that witnesses had claimed the two activists were being surveilled months prior to the incident, strengthening their suspicion that it was state agents who abducted the pair.

“We are demanding [from] the Office of the President, President Marcos, and all the officials of the security sector, the Armed Forces of the Philippines, and the Philippine National Police chiefs, to surface the two,” La Viña said on Thursday.

All avenues exhausted

According to Karapatan, the petitions were filed after the families of the activists said they had “exhausted all avenues to locate James and Felix, including searching in camps and police stations, to no avail.”

La Viña also noted that even with the CCTV footage they presented, the police had only said their investigation was still underway. “It has been two months, and [the investigation] has not progressed,” the lawyer said.

Jazmines, the younger brother of former National Democratic Front of the Philippines consultant Alan Jazmines, used to be an official of the League of Filipino Students and Kilusang Mayo Uno.

Salaveria, on the other hand, is a founding member of indigenous rights groups Tunay na Alyansa ng Bayan Alay sa mga Katutubo and Kabataan para sa Tribung Pilipino, as well as the biking group Cycling Advocates.