By a Transport Union Activist
On 23 August 2024, James Jazmines attended the 66th birthday dinner of his friend Felix Salaveria Jr. at a restaurant in Tabaco in Alabay Province, in the Philippines along with other members of Cycling Advocates (CYCAD) a cycling club which promotes bicycle riding and supports environmental campaigning in the town.
After the dinner finished the group broke up to leave for their homes. James rode off on his bike. He has not been seen since. Five days later witnesses saw Felix being bundled by men in plain clothes into a silver van with false number plates. Shortly after, uniformed police entered his home and removed his laptop phone and other items. No one knows Felix’s whereabouts and the police deny any knowledge of him. Both Felix, 66, and James, 63, are veteran activists who have campaigned for many years for labour rights, the environment, and indigenous peoples’ rights.
The human rights organisation Karapatan Karapatan points out that James older brother Alan Jazmines was a consultant in peace negotiations on behalf of the rebel National Democratic Front and has been hunted by the military for several years. They feel that James disappearance may be a dirty way of the military of getting to his brother.
Since President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. assumed office in 2022, he has made strenuous efforts to restore the reputation of his family. He has conducted a massive campaign to rewrite the history of his father’s dictatorship, portraying it as a golden era of peace and prosperity and he has made loud proclamations about his own commitment to international standards of human rights, following the brutality of the previous Duterte administration.
The reality is that he uses the repressive apparatus set up by Duterte in tact, including a draconian anti-terrorism law which allows the arrest and the freezing of assets of almost any organisation or individual who opposes the government, and he is overseeing an era of terror which looks set to match his father’s record of extra-judicial killings and enforced disappearances.
Since Marcos entered office in 2022, at least 14 individuals have gone missing after reportedly being abducted by armed men. On 11 September 2024, Vladimir Maro and Andy Magno, two young activists among local farmers went missing in San Pablo, Isabela.
Human rights organisations in the Philippines are calling for letters of protest to be sent to the president calling for James Jazmines, Felix Salaveria, Vladimir Maro, Andy Magno and other victims of enforced disappearances to be surfaced and returned unharmed to their anxious families.
- Please use this model text and email the office of the president op@malacanang.gov.ph