Right(s) Up: Poor investigation of disappeared activists as human rights violation

• Context: In the hearings for the petitions of protective writs, multiple court rulings found poor investigation by  state security forces on enforced disappearance cases.

• Human rights: Right to life, liberty and security; freedom from torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment; protection from enforced disappearance

• Community impact: The pattern of poor investigation further worsens the climate of impunity in the Philippines, especially for human rights defenders

• Rights-holder: Desaparecidos/victims of enforced disappearance, families of desaparecidos, human rights organizations

• Duty-bearer: Philippine National Police, Armed Forces of the Philippines, National Bureau of Investigation, Marcos Jr. administration

Human rights group Karapatan stressed that the numerous court rulings on the poor conduct of investigations on enforced disappearance show not just the state’s lack of due diligence but also the propensity to whitewash.

“The State’s failure to exercise extraordinary diligence in investigations on cases of enforced disappearance should not be viewed merely as a crime of omission,” Karapatan said in a statement. “There is deliberate intent to whitewash the investigation to evade the question of State policy on abducting and forcibly disappearing individuals perceived as ‘enemies of the State’ and full accountability.”

The Court of Appeals (CA) exposed the failure of the state security and investigative bodies, particularly the Philippine National Police (PNP), to properly investigate the case of Felix Salaveria, Jr., a 66-year-old indigenous rights activist abducted on August 28, 2024; and the disappearance of Dexter Capuyan and Gene Roz Jamil “Bazoo” De Jesus, both indigenous rights activists disappeared on April 28, 2023.

Enforced disappearance and kidnapping are similar but overlapping criminal acts. Both of these crimes involve unlawful taking and carrying away of a person against their will. However, enforced disappearance is a specific form of crime conducted by state elements and the motives are mainly politically-motivated. 

Since enforced disappearance involves a crime perpetuated by state actors, it is a human rights violation. The second layer of victimization is the omission, which refers to the State’s failure to exercise its mandate to comprehensively investigate and prosecute cases of enforced disappearance.

According to Desaparecidos, a support group of  families of disappeared activists, human rights violations also extend to the families as they experience threats, harassment, intimidation, and even surveillance by state forces during search missions.

For Karapatan, the dismissive responses of police and military officials to inquiries from the families of Capuyan and de Jesus—combined with CA findings, hearings, witness affidavits, and the failure of government respondents to exercise extraordinary due diligence—point to a disturbing conclusion that there is a deliberate attempt to conceal the role of state security forces in the abduction and enforced disappearance of Capuyan and de Jesus.

The CA also flagged the police’s omission of a key witness’s testimony—identifying the armed abductors as members of the CIDG—was “indicative of tolerance of, or acquiescence to, the acts said to have been committed by State agents.” Had it not been the court’s proactive questioning, the critical documents would not have been submitted as evidence at all.

The Anti-Enforced or Involuntary Disappearance Act of 2012 is a law that penalizes and criminalizes enforced disappearance, the first of its kind in Asia. However, there has been no conviction yet arising from violation of this law.

The families of the victims, national and international human rights groups, and even United Nations Special Rapporteur Irene Khan, recommended to the Philippine government to ratify the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance to strengthen the mechanism. This is the only major human rights treaty that the country has not yet ratified. (RTS, DAA)

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