Bulatlat News
By DOMINIC GUTOMAN
Bulatlat.com
MANILA – Cyclists and environmental advocates sounded alarm over the 15th victim of enforced disappearance under the administration of Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
Felix Salaveria Jr. is a known cyclist and a dedicated activist. He is the founding member of the Kabataan para sa Tribung Pilipino (Katribu Youth) and Tunay na Alyansa ng Bayan Alay sa mga Katutubo (TABAK), both groups known for advocating the rights of indigenous peoples (IP). He is also a founding and active member of Cycling Advocates (Cycad), a group advocating for low-cost, healthy, and non-polluting alternative mode of transportation.
“As an active member of the cycling community and environmental defender, his disappearance cannot be ignored,” said cyclists and mobility advocacy group Make It Safer Movement (MISMO), in a statement.
Salaveria was abducted in Tabaco, Albay on the morning of August 28, five days after his 66th birthday. It was celebrated with James Jazmines, who also disappeared on August 26. Jazmines was his cycling buddy and brother of National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) consultant Alan Jazminez.
Salaveria was also the person who reached out to human rights group Karapatan on August 26, reporting Jazmines’s disappearance.
MISMO said that Cycad had a great impact on the transportation sector, which mobility advocates continue to benefit today “in promoting active mobility and advocating for safer, greener transportation options.”
Aside from bicycling, Salaveria was also a known advocate of eco-waste management, according to his family and Katribu Youth. Since he moved to Tabaco, he has been encouraging proper waste management and coordinating the transport of biodegradable waste for conversion to compost. He also donated a bicycle especially modified to collect waste for composting to their community.
In the initial report of Karapatan, they gathered footage from a barangay-owned CCTV that showed men in civilian clothes forcing Salaveria into a silver van.
Gab Ferrer, daughter of Salaveria, appealed for the immediate surfacing of his father.
“We have not heard from him since. We appeal to the public to help us pressure authorities to surface our father. We do not want our father to be just a statistic. It is important that you know him as a human being and a cherished person in his community,” said Ferrer.
She also added that Salaveria is loved and respected in the community, known for his generosity and kindness especially to those in need. “He has been working on a community garden to benefit his neighborhood.”
Salaveria’s family also cited humanitarian considerations, especially that he is still recovering from a medical condition. Aside from his old age, Salaveria has suffered a stroke in 2023, paralyzing the left side of his body.
Advocacy groups and the family resounded the call to immediately surface Salaveria and other victims of enforced disappearance.
“We, together with his family, friends, and the cycling community, ask for your support and collective action to stop the red-tagging and extrajudicial persecutions that continue to endanger the lives of those who stand for justice. It is time to stand together, to end this violence, and to demand the immediate surfacing of all desaparecidos,” MISMO said in a statement. (RTS, RVO)
