By REYNARD MAGTOTO
Part 1 of 2 reports
Bulatlat.com
LEGAZPI CITY, Albay – For sisters Felicia and Gab Ferrer, the search for their disappeared father and environmental activist Felix Salaveria Jr. continues despite the police’s lack of urgency in looking for him.
“The most dismaying of it all is their lack of sense of urgency,” Gab told Bulatlat in an interview, referring to the police and other government agencies they talked to in their search for Salaveria.
Salaveria was abducted on August 28, about five days after labor rights activist and his bicycle buddy James Jazmines went missing in Tabaco City in Albay.
Last September, human rights group Karapatan revealed the CCTV footage and photos they obtained where men in plainclothes onboard a Toyota van with plate number VAA5504 abducted Salaveria at 11:03 am on Aug. 28 in Brgy. Cobo, Tabaco City.
Persons of interest also include those onboard motorcycles, according to Karapatan.
“My sister and I are already worried about our father’s condition,” Felicia said.
‘With evidence but no urgency’
Apart from the abduction of Salaveria, CCTV footage obtained by Karapatan also showed another Toyota van with plate number NDR5274 on August 23 at 10:00 p.m. entering Brgy. San Lorenzo, Tabaco City where Jazmines was abducted.
The van left the village around 10:16 pm. This time, it was followed by a black Hilux pick-up, a gray Avanza vehicle, and a gray Innova vehicle. Karapatan estimates that Jazmines was abducted around this time.
“We want to release these to the public because we want to call on government agencies, high ranking officials to say something,” human rights lawyer Antonio La Viña said in a press conference.
Having studied the footage, La Viña observed that it was “a professional operation” and that “only the state security agencies could do something sophisticated like these.”
“We are not professional investigators. Yet, we were able to secure physical evidence there. We got a lot in three days. How much more if the police took this seriously,” La Viña said.
State forces behind the disappearance
Karapatan slammed Pres. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and state authorities for remaining “conspicuously silent” in the face of growing indications that state forces were behind the abductions.
“The tell-tale signs of state involvement in the abductions of Jazmines and Salaveria are there,” Karapatan Secretary-General Cristina Palabay said. “The state’s silence contravenes Republic Act No. 10353, or the law against enforced disappearance that has been in existence since 2012.”
On Sept. 26, PNP Bicol Regional Director Andre Dizon said that they are conducting a comprehensive investigation regarding the suspects by tracking the supposed vehicles used in the abduction and the whereabouts of the two disappeared activists.
“Duty bearers should be bound to carry out their tasks, especially with all the resources they have. They have a duty to protect the people,” said Cora, wife of missing Jazmines.
“Those responsible must be prosecuted and punished to the full extent of the law, and justice rendered to the victims and their families,” Palabay said. (JJE DAA)
