Families of disappeared express support for family of missing activist James Jazmines as CA hearing starts
KARAPATAN Public Information
PRESS RELEASE
01 October 2025
For reference: JL Burgos, Chairperson, Desaparecidos
Families of disappeared express support for family of missing activist James Jazmines as CA hearing starts
Desaparecidos, an organization of families and friends of victims of enforced disappearance, welcomed the conduct of hearings at the Court of Appeals on petitions for writs of amparo and habeas data filed by Cora Jazmines, wife of missing activist James Jazmines, who was abducted in Tabaco City, Albay on August 23, 2025.
Today’s proceeding at the Court of Appeals is the first of a number of summary hearings ordered by the Supreme Court after it granted temporary protection to Jazmines and her immediate family members.
Photo by Desaparecidos at the Court of Appeals today, October 1, 2025
Cora Jazmines had filed the petition with the Supreme Court (SC) in November 2024, but the SC issued its decision only on May 6, 2025 and provided Jazmines’ counsels at the National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL) with a copy of the decision only on July 3, 2025, half a year after the petition was first filed.
Due to several postponements, today’s hearing on Jazmines’ petition will be the first since the Supreme Court’s decision was made public last July.
Impleaded in Jazmines’ petition are, among others, Gen. Romeo S. Brawner Jr. and PGen. Rommel D. Marbil. Brawner was the chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines while Marbil was director general of the Philippine National Police when James Jazmines was abducted. With the temporary protection granted by the Supreme Court, the respondents and those under their command have been ordered not to approach Mrs. Jazmines and her immediate family within a one kilometer radius.
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 of Appeals granted the Salaveria family’s amparo petition on July 21, 2025.
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.
Desaparecidos chairperson JL Burgos said he is cautiously optimistic for a favorable resolution to the Jazmines family’s petition for protective writs. “We really do not know what to expect, given the Court of Appeals’ spotty record on granting these writs,” said Burgos.
“Jhed Tamano and Jonila Castro’s petitions were denied, despite glaring evidence of their State-perpetrated abduction,” he added, “and recently, so was Eco Dangla’s petition.”
Burgos also noted that State authorities continue to harass the families of missing activists Elgene Mungcal and Elena Pampoza, despite the Supreme Court’s grant of temporary protection to them.
“Nonetheless,” said Burgos, “we continue to support the Jazmines family and all other families of the missing in their continuing demand to surface their missing loved ones, find truthful answers on their disappearance, and for the perpetrators to be held accountable.”
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KARAPATAN is an alliance of human rights organizations and programs, human rights desks and committees of people’s organizations, and individual advocates committed to the defense and promotion of people’s rights and civil liberties. It monitors and documents cases of human rights violations, assists and defends victims and conducts education, training and campaign.