Court grants writ of amparo to kin of missing activists
The Iloilo Regional Trial Court (RTC) has granted a writ of amparo to the families of two abducted Iloilo activists who have remained missing for eight months.
In the two-page writ of amparo dated December 17, Judge Narciso Aguilar, presiding judge of the Iloilo RTC Branch 33, directed President Macapagal-Arroyo and nine other respondents to release Nilo Arado and Maria Luisa-Posa Dominado if the two activists are in their custody.
The issuance of the writ is the first in the Visayas after the Supreme Court issued its guidelines in October 24 to stem the tide of extrajudicial killings and abductions of mostly activists in the country.
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.
In separate order issued on the same date, Aguilar also directed the respondents to submit affidavits of their defense and other information related to the writ within five working days after receipt of the order.
The petition for the issuance of the writ was jointly filed by Dominado's daughter May Wan and Arado's wife Rosemarie on December 17.
The petitioners had asked the court to order the respondents to release their kin alive.
In the event that the respondents deny the custody of the two missing activists, the petitioners had 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 3rd Infantry 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.
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.
Arado was the regional chair of the militant Bagong Alyansang Makabayan while Dominado was the spokesperson of the Samahan nga mga Ex-Detainees Laban sa Detensyon at para sa Amnestiya (Selda) in Panay when they were abducted.
The families and colleagues of the victims have blamed the abduction and shooting on state and military agents but this has been repeatedly denied by military officials.
In a summary hearing conducted Friday, Dulay and Castor submitted their reply to the writ through their legal counsel Ehdel Genese Pereira. None of the military officers named respondents or their representative were present.
In a nine-page affidavit submitted to the court, Dulay said they the police officials should not be named among the respondents because they "have not violated or threatened to violate the rights of aggrieved parties."
He said the police had responded to the incident, conducted pursuit and continues to investigate the case.
Dulay said Garachico was "not cooperative" in the investigation, a claim denied by Garachico.
He said the inclusion of the President and the police officials in the petition was a "classic example of harassment" and a "clear abuse of writ of amparo."
Aguilar set the next hearing on the case on January 15 next year and is expected to hear the defense of the respondents and the merits of the petition.