Kin of disappeared decries police incompetence, lack of resolve in investigation on James Jazmines' abduction
KARAPATAN Public Information
PRESS RELEASE
14 November 2025
References: JL Burgos, Desaparecidos Chairperson, and Cora Jazmines, Desaparecidos member
Desaparecidos secretariat, 09189790580
Kin of disappeared decries police incompetence, lack of resolve in investigation on James Jazmines' abduction
Today, November 14, 2025 marks one year to the day Corazon Jazmines, wife of missing activist James Jazmines, filed a petition for writs of amparo and habeas data before the Supreme Court, but she and her family have yet to see a glimmer of the justice and accountability they seek.
It took around nine months before the Supreme Court made public its order of temporary protection for Jazmines’ immediate family and its directive to the Court of Appeals (CA) to conduct summary hearings on Corazon Jazmines’ petition. Her husband had been abducted on August 23, 2024 in Tabaco, Albay. Five days later, Felix Salaveria Jr., a friend of James’s who reported the latter’s disappearance, was himself abducted in the same city.
The latest hearing on the Jazmines case revealed more of the incompetence and lack of resolve of the police in investigating James’ disappearance. Under questioning, the police investigator admitted that he only began probing the Jazmines case after the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) in Region 5 issued its report. Significantly, he admitted that it was only in July 2025, almost a year after the incident, that the police issued an all points bulletin for one of the vehicles used in the abduction—obviously an exercise in futility given the lapse of time. The investigator also admitted that his information on the vehicle’s plate number came not from his own efforts, but from secondary sources such as Karapatan and the CHR’s investigation report.
“It seems that it is the duty bearers like the police who are on trial here,” said Corazon Jazmines. “So far, hindi pa nila napapatunayan na ginawa nga nila ang extraordinary diligence na inaasahan sa pagtupad ng kanilang tungkulin na imbestigahan ang pagkawala ng asawa ko.”
“Since enforced disappearance, by definition, is perpetrated by the state or state-sanctioned forces, it is difficult to rely on the police who are understandably reluctant to conduct a thoroughgoing investigation,” said Desaparecidos chair JL Burgos. “Families of the disappeared are often stonewalled by authorities.”
“Nonetheless,” said Corazon Jazmines, “we will not relent in our efforts within and outside the courts to demand that my husband James be surfaced safe and sound, and that the truth about his disappearance be uncovered. We have hearings until the last week of November and hope that the Court of Appeals will issue a favorable ruling. Ang pinakamagandang pamasko ng CA sa amin ng anak ko ay hustisya at katotohanan,” she concluded.
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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.