KARAPATAN welcomes a Supreme Court decision dated May 6, 2025 granting a temporary protection order to the wife and immediate family of an activist abducted in Albay in August 2024. The copy of the said decision was received by the National Union of Peoples Lawyers on July 3, 2025.
In the same ruling, the Supreme Court directed several respondents, including, among others, Pres. Ferdinand Marcos Jr., Gen. Romeo S. Brawner Jr. and PGen. Rommel D. Marbil to comment on petitions for writs of amparo and habeas data filed by the missing activist’s wife. Brawner was the chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines while Marbil was director general of the Philippine National Police when the abduction occurred.
Corazon Jazmines, wife of long-time activist James Jazmines who went missing in Tabaco City on August 23, 2024, had filed the petitions for protective writs in November 2024. With the temporary protection orders, the respondents have been ordered not to approach her and her immediate family within a one kilometer radius.
The Supreme Court also ordered the Court of Appeals to conduct summary hearings on Mrs. Jazmines’ petitions starting July 7, 2025 and decide on the merits within 10 days from submission of the case for decision.
“It is high time that hearings on Mrs. Jazmines’ petitions are conducted,” said Karapatan deputy secretary general Atty. Maria Sol Taule. “The Jazmines family has been waiting for half a year for the Supreme Court’s resolution on this matter.”
The family of James Jazmines’ missing fellow activist Felix Salaveria Jr., whose abduction on August 28, 2024 in Barangay Cobo, Tabaco City was caught on CCTV cameras, had also filed petitions for protective writs in November 2024. Their petitions were granted by the Supreme Court in December 2024 and hearings at the Court of Appeals, which began in April of this year, were concluded on July 1, 2025. The court is expected to issue a ruling within this month.
The Writ of Amparo is an extraordinary remedy available to persons whose right to life, liberty, and security has been violated or threatened with violation by an unlawful act of omission of a public official or employee, or of a private individual or entity. The Writ of Habeas Data, on the other hand, is a remedy when one’s right to privacy in life, liberty, or security is violated or threatened.
“The results of petitions for protective writs have been a mixed bag,” cautioned Taule. “For instance, the Court of Appeals eventually denied Jhed Tamano and Jonila Castro’s petitions, despite glaring evidence of their State-perpetrated abduction,” she added. “And in the case of missing activists Elgene Mungcal and Elena Pampoza, where protective writs had been granted by the Supreme Court, police and military elements continue to hound their families. Nonetheless,” said Taule, “We are one with the Salaveria and Jazmines families in sincerely hoping that the courts will issue rulings that would lead to the surfacing of their missing kin.”