Kin of missing activists file writ of amparo vs. PGMA, 9 others
The families of two abducted activists in Iloilo have filed a petition for a writ of amparo against President Macapagal Arroyo and nine others, mostly military and police officials.
In a nine page petition filed before the Regional Trial Court in Iloilo City on Monday, May Wan Dominado and Rosemarie Arado asked the court to issue a writ ordering the respondents to release alive their kin Ma. Luisa Posa-Dominado and Nilo Arado. May Wan is Dominado's elder daughter while Rosemarie is Arado's wife.
In the event that the respondents deny the custody of the two missing activists, the petitioners also asked the court to issue an order allowing them to conduct ocular inspections on places where the victims are believed to have been taken including military camps, detachments, patrol bases and safe houses.
Also named respondents were National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales, Armed Forces Chief of Staff Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr., Maj. Gen. Jovenal Narcise, commander of the Army's 3rdInfantry Division, Col. Mariano Perez and a certain Maj. Galanza of the Military Intelligence Group and Capt. Lowen Gil Marquez, chief of the AFP's 32nd Civil Relation Unit.
The petitioners also sought the writ against Chief Supt. Wilfredo Dulay Sr., Western Visayas police director, Insp. Vicente Castor Jr., and Insp. Alexander Rodrigo, police chief of Oton and Janiuay towns in Iloilo, respectively.
The writ of amparo is an order issued by a court to protect the constitutional rights of a person. The writ can compel state agents to look for the missing person and could hold them liable if the court found that the officials did not exert enough effort in finding the person.
The Supreme Court has issued at least six writs of amparo related to abducted activists since it introduced the writ on Oct. 24 to stem the tide of extrajudicial killings and abductions of mostly activists in the country.
Arado and Dominado were forcibly taken by heavily armed men on board at least two vehicles in Barangay Cabanbanan in Oton town in Iloilo on April 12 after the victims' vehicle was waylaid. Their companion, human rights worker Jose Ely Garachico, was shot and seriously wounded but was left behind.
The victims' vehicle was found hours later badly burned in a sugarcane field in Barangay Guadalupe in Janiuay town in Iloilo around 30 km from where the victims were waylaid.
The victims' families have blamed military agents for the abduction citing similar cases of killings and attacks against Leftist activists since 2001.
United Nations special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions Philip Alston has also blamed the spate of killings and abduction of activists on the military.
But this has been repeatedly denied by military officials who have insisted that the killings and abductions are part of a purge within the Leftist movement.
Narcise, who commands troops in Western and Central Visayas, had earlier offered a P100,000 cash reward for the recovery of the victims. He said unarmed activists are not considered targets by troops under his command.
The victims' families said in their petition that have opted to ask for a writ of amparo because their kin remain missing eight months after they were abducted.
Luis Posa, elder brother of Dominado, said two of the respondents, Marquez and Perez, have "ignored" court subpoenas in relation to a petition for a writ of habeas corpus filed earlier by the victims' families.
"We are losing hope that we will find them but a writ of amparo could compel the military to produce Luisa and Nilo," Posa said in a telephone interview.
If the missing activists are already dead, the petitioners asked the court to compel the respondents to guide them to where the victims are buried and to retrieve the remains so that they can be given decent burial and to pay the kin P5 million in damages.
The victims' families petitioned the to issue a writ of habeas data to compel the respondents to furnish the court information, documents, and other data related to the investigation of the abduction.
In asking for the results of the investigation, the petitioners lamented that no progress has been made by the police investigation on the incident.