The results of a quick reaction mission on the disappearances of Jazmines and Salaveria provided more indicators that State security forces were behind their abduction, according to Karapatan.
By REYNARD MAGTOTO
Bulatlat.com
ALBAY CITY – “Surface James!” is the call of the wife of the missing brother of National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) consultant, James Jazmines, as she desperately searched tirelessly for her husband in this province.
For Corazon Jazmines, the search will never be over until they find her husband.
“Whoever is responsible for his disappearance, I do not know of any basis for him to be arrested without any reason. He is not a criminal, he has not committed any offense. He should be surfaced. It is wrong to violate his basic right by holding him without any case in court. If you find a reason to charge him in court, then file a case. Let the rule of law prevail,” Corazon said.
Corazon joined human rights group Karapatan’s quick reaction mission from Aug. 28 to Aug. 31 to search and gather information on the reported disappearance of James Jazmines and Felix Salaveria Jr, James’s cycling buddy, in Tabaco City, Ligao City, and Legazpi City.
Jazmines and Salaveria are the 14th and 15th cases of enforced disappearance under the Ferdinand Marcos Jr. administration, according to Karapatan.
However the three-day search was not favorable for them. James and Felix are still missing. “Isn’t it strange that something is happening but the local authorities don’t know?”
“That is why we now need to elevate this to the national level because, of course, we need to bring this to whoever has command responsibility. It’s telling them, ‘Hey, guys, the regions have no idea about this. What are they doing? Your local offices are not doing anything, are they sleeping on the job?’” Corazon said.
The abductions
According to Karapatan’s report, before the series of abduction, Jazmines was with Salaveria to celebrate the latter’s 67th birthday on the night of August 23 at Patang Siram restaurant in barangay San Roque, Tabaco City, along with other friends who were also cycling enthusiasts.
“At around 10 p.m., they all went home after the birthday dinner. The restaurant is about a kilometer away from James’s house in Brgy. San Lorenzo and Felix expected him to arrive home easily. They also had the habit of sending texts to each other once they arrived home, so Felix was puzzled why he did not receive a message from James confirming his arrival at home,” the report stated.
It was Salaviera who informed Karapatan that Jazmines had gone missing on August 23 at around 10:00 p.m., according to the group’s secretary general, Cristina Palabay. “We received information that James did not arrive at his rented studio and he had been ‘taken’ by a group of men and forced into a white van at around 10 p.m.”
“The van used in the abduction had been parked since 8 p.m. at the street corner where James would have turned to go to his house. There was also another man on a motorcycle trailing the van. This man carried James’s bike after the latter was forced into the van,” Palabay added.
Then on August 28, at around 10 p.m., Salaveria also went missing, five days after Jazmines’s disappearance. “Salaveria was on his way home after buying food when he was abducted by men in plainclothes and forced inside a silver van,” Karapatan said.
The abduction was witnessed by his neighbors. The barangay’s CCTV footage revealed that the van carried plate number VAA 5504 and there was an ATEC logo on the vehicle’s side. Upon checking by the quick response team, the plate number used was found stolen, registered for a Toyota Rush, a sports utility vehicle model, and the ATEC logo is that of a tech company in Cabuyao, Laguna.
The Tabaco City police confiscated the belongings of Salaveria in his boarding house in barangay Cobo on the night of August 28 for safekeeping after the barangay captain reported the incident.
On August 29, Corazon and other members of the team requested for a copy of the CCTV footage in barangay Cobo, but village chief Raymund Bonto told them that the PNP Tabaco City has the copy already, and they must request a copy from the latter .
Difficulties during search
Corazon felt helpless and tired when they were still at the barangay hall of San Lorenzo, Tabaco City on August 30 to review the CCTV footage if her husband has been seen in the footage but nothing has been found. They filed a blotter with the barangay..
Another inconsistency made by police officials, was when the blotter they filed on August 29 with the Tabaco PNP was not filed by Tabaco Police Officers Jeffrey Bongalon and Raymond Bongalla, prompting them to refile a blotter on August 30. Another report was filed with the Albay Police Provincial Office.
“We reported to the police that my husband is missing. They mentioned that they would go to the incident’s place and investigate. The next day, they did not report it to their superior from the city to the province. When we came back, we had to wait for the blotter report and they were still making it at that very moment,” Corazon said.
Corazon also pointed out that the police did not also investigate the place of the incident, as attested by the barangay officials who failed to mention the presence of the police in the area after the incident.
“If they are really the duty bearers in charge of knowing the crimes, they should have investigated because I already reported that my husband is missing and he lives in that barangay, so they must have done something, but it turns out that no investigation was done,” Corazon said.
At Region 5 headquarters of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), the policemen on the desk refused to accomplish the inquiry form into a reported disappeared person’s whereabouts as provided by Republic Act No. 10353 or the Anti-Enforced Disappearance Law, according to Palabay.
“They were unfamiliar with the law against enforced disappearances,” Palabay said. “But the team was brought to the CIDG detention area to show that James was not there.”
“In this particular case, they do not know the procedures that they should provide full assurance that they are doing everything and they are providing proper documentation because that is all we wanted, to show that we are looking for the missing. If there is nothing there, put it on paper that the person is not here. They were hesitating,” Corazon observed.
Gov’t forces as perpetrators
The results of a quick reaction mission on the disappearances of Jazmines and Salaveria provided more indicators that State security forces were behind their abduction, according to Karapatan.
“We have a basis to conclude that this is an act, the abduction of the two is an act of our state security forces. This is not the first time they have done that. This is also not the first time that the plate numbers of the vehicles used in abductions are different from those registered to the right vehicle,” Palabay said.
Aside from calling the attention of the 9th Infantry Division, Palabay said they suspect the 49th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army to be involved in the abductions since Tabaco City is within its area of responsibility.
“We believe that this was done through the state agencies or through the means by some of the state entities because it is similar to the circumstances of others abducted, people that have either been surfaced or not yet been found. We are familiar with that because we are counsels of several of those cases,” said former Ateneo de Manila University College of Law Dean and Salveria’s legal counsel Antonio La Viña.
“This is not new. The patterns and circumstances really point to the state forces being the perpetrators. By the nature of these cases, we know how difficult it will be (in) the next days, weeks, and how crucial it is in this state, this time of gathering information, documentation, and evidence,” said Julianne Agpalo of National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL).
Jazmines and Salveria, both long-time human rights defenders, were already under surveillance by state forces since February this year in Tabaco City, Albay.
Jazmines served as information officer of the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU). Up to the mid-2000s, he was the information technology (IT) consultant of a development NGO and has been working freelance in the IT sector since then. He is known in his community as quiet and unassuming, but also a frequent biker according to Karapatan.
Salaveria is known as an avid eco-waste management advocate who encouraged the proper disposal of waste in Tabaco City. He coordinated with other groups based in Tabaco City for alternative ways of transporting waste for conversion to compost for permaculture, and even donated a bike for this purpose. In addition to his waste disposal advocacy, he also maintained a small community garden in his residence. He is well-liked in his community both for his advocacies and for being a kind and helpful neighbor, according to Karapatan.
As founding member of Cyclists Advocates (CYCAD), Salveria’s organization promotes bicycling as a low-cost, healthy, and environmentally sustainable form of transportation. “He is a true believer of bicycling and has taken us, his daughters, biking for as long as we can remember,” said Gab, daughter of Salveria.
“In addition to bicycling, our father is also an advocate of eco-waste management. Since he moved to Tabaco, he has encouraged proper waste management in coordinating the transport of biodegradable waste for conversion to compose,” Gab added. “He even donated to his community a bicycle specifically modified to collect waste for composting.”
“We join the families of James Jazmines and Felix Salaveria Jr. in demanding that they be surfaced immediately, alive and unhurt,” said Palabay.
Karapatan demands that those responsible be held accountable for violating RA 10353 or the Anti-Enforced or Involuntary Disappearance Act of 2012, which punishes the crime of involuntary disappearance with life imprisonment. (RTS, RVO) 
