A mass was celebrated at the St. John the Baptist Church in Tabaco City to raise awareness on the continuing disappearance of long-time activists James Jazmines and Felix Salaveria Jr.. A press conference was also held in Legazpi City erlier with James’ wife Corazon Jazmines, Hustisya secretary general Ofelia Balleta and Desaparecidos spokesperson Edita Burgos.
February 2025 marks the sixth month of the abduction and forcible disappearance of Jazmines and Salaveria Jr.
Mass had also been celebrated on February 23, 2025 at the Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in Paranaque City, where Mrs. Jazmines denounced her husband and Felix Salaveria’s forced disappearance and called for their surfacing.
Meanwhile, attorneys from the Office of the Solicitor General attempted to evade the issue of state accountability through subterfuge at a hearing held yesterday at the Court of Appeals on the Salaveria family’s petition for writs of amparo and habeas data.
“Unable to deny the fact of the abduction because the act had been caught on CCTV, the state attorneys tried to raise doubts that it was Felix Salaveria Jr. who was abducted by harping on the fake IDs purportedly found in his house. These IDs, however, were merely cited and never presented to Salaveria’s daughters,” said Karapatan deputy secretary general Maria Sol Taule.
“Second, they even attempted to raise doubts that Felix Salaveria Jr. exists, by citing a problem in his birth certificate. The state attorneys failed in this tack, however, because Salaveria’s birth certificate and other identification documents were good enough to get him a Philippine passport and a US visa in the past and that he was actually able to travel to the US on his visa,” added Taule.
The testimonies at the hearing also revealed that apart from denying that they had Jazmines and Salaveria in their custody, and besides announcing the creation of a special investigating team to look into the disappearance, not a single government investigative agency has reached out to the Salaveria family to report on any development in their alleged probes six months after the abductions.
“State agencies are obviously playing a waiting game. They hope that in the course of time, the issue of Jazmines and Salaveria’s disappearances would blow over, and state forces would forever evade accountability.
But they underestimate the tenacity of the Salaveria and Jazmines families and other kin of the disappeared,” stressed Taule, “who will not waver until they get the answers that would give them justice and closure and hold the perpetrators accountable,” concluded Taule. ###