Families urge for return of missing activist, advocate in Albay

MANILA, Philippines — The families of human rights activist James Jazmines and cycling advocate Felix Salaveria Jr. have appealed for their immediate and safe return after they have been missing for several days.

In an online press conference organized by human rights group Karapatan on Tuesday, September 3, the families of the “desaparecidos” said that they had been missing since the last week of August.

They were allegedly being abducted by “state forces” in Tabaco City, Albay. 

Jazmines, 63, was last seen on August 23 in Barangay San Lazaro, Tabaco City, Albay. 

He is the youngest brother of National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) consultant Alan Jazmines.

According to his wife, Cora Jazmines, their family has experienced harassment, particularly when James' brother Alan was being hunted by the military and during the years when Alan was involved in the peace negotiations between the NDFP and the administration of former President Rodrigo Duterte.

It can be recalled that Alan was released from detention in 2016 when Duterte reopened the peace talks between the government and the NDFP. 

However, he once again went underground when the former president scrapped the peace talks in 2017. 

Cora also expressed her worry as James suffers from hypertension and chronic leg pain.

“We call on the country's duty bearers to help us locate James and bring him back to us safely,” she said. 

Meanwhile, Salaveria was a founding member of Cycling Advocates which promotes bicycling as “a low-cost, healthy and environmentally sustainable form of transportation,” according to her daughter Gab Ferrer. 

“He is a true believer in the benefits of bicycling and has taken us, his daughters, biking for as long as we can remember,” she said in the same online press conference.

Salaveria also suffered a stroke in 2023 and was paralyzed on the left side. He is still recovering, according to Ferrer. 

“We appeal on humanitarian grounds to the authorities who are detaining him to surface our father, Felix Salaveria, immediately, along with the others who have also disappeared. Our families need to know that they are safe and healthy, and we want to ensure that their constitutional