CA grants writs of habeas data, amparo to wife of desaparecido
The Court of Appeals (CA) has declared that missing activist James Jazmines is a victim of enforced disappearance, granting his wife the writs of amparo and habeas data she sought from the Supreme Court in 2024.
In a 66-page decision dated Jan. 14, the appellate court’s 12th Division ruled in favor of Corazon Jazmines, wife of James and the petitioner of the legal remedies, saying that she was able to prove “by substantial evidence” that her husband’s disappearance is an “enforced disappearance within the definition of the law and jurisprudence.”
A writ of amparo, a legal remedy for cases of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings, is granted when a person’s right to life, liberty or security, is violated or threatened.
The writ of habeas data, on the other hand, protects a person whose rights are threatened by the unlawful collection or storage of private data.
According to the ruling penned by Associate Justice Marie Christine Azcarraga-Jacob, Corazon was able to establish the following points: her husband remains missing; his disappearance was sudden, involuntary and unexplained; she sought assistance from the barangay, police and other government agencies; and the disappearance “occurred within a factual context marked by Red-tagging, surveillance fears and security-related harassment.”
Proven points
“These circumstances are precisely the types of situation the writ of amparo was crafted to address,” it said, adding that Jazmines’
case is also a continuing violation as he remains missing to this day.
The CA also held top military and police officials “responsible and accountable” for their “failure to discharge their duty to exercise extraordinary diligence in the prevention, investigation, documentation and resolution” of his enforced disappearance.
The police officials are former Philippine National Police chief and now Metropolitan Manila Development Authority General Manager Nicolas Torre III; Brig. Gen. Andre Dizon, then the Bicol region police director; Col. Julius Añonuevo, Albay provincial director; Col. Maria Ivy Castillo of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group in Bicol region; and Lt. Col. Edmundo Cerillo, Jr., Tabaco City police chief.
Other respondents include Armed Forces chief Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr. and former PNP chief Gen. Rommel Marbil.
NUPL reaction
The National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL) called the CA decision a “major ruling for truth and justice.”
“But we continue to demand that the state surface James Jazmines and fellow missing activist Felix Salaveria,” it said in a statement.
An information technology consultant, Jazmines is a younger brother of former National Democratic Front of the Philippines consultant Alan Jazmines, who was released from political detention in 2016.
Jazmines, who went missing on Aug. 23, 2024, was last seen with his cycling friends at the birthday celebration of fellow environment activist Felix Salaveria Jr. at a restaurant in Tabaco City, Albay province.
Upon finding out that his friend had gone missing, Salaveria went to the police to report it. But he also disappeared five days later and, like Jazmines, has yet to surface to this day.
In July last year, the 13th Division of the appellate court also granted the petition for the issuance of writs of amparo and habeas data to the daughters of Salaveria. The court also held Torre and four other police officers responsible for Salaveria’s disappearance.
