Gov't asks court to junk writ of amparo filed by kin of missing activists
Engr. Danilo Zabala of the National Transmission
Corporation (Transco) briefs the representatives
of the various electric cooperatives in Panay
island and the media about the Cebu Negros
Interconnection Uprating Project.
The government has asked the Iloilo Regional Trial Court to dismiss the petition for a writ of amparo filed by the families of two abducted activists against President Macapagal Arroyo, National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales and other military and police officials.
In a 28-page return of the writ dated January 10, the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) asked the Iloilo RTC Branch 33 to dismiss the petition filed by the families of activists Ma. Luisa Posa-Dominado and Nilo Arado for lack of merit.
The OSG also asked the court to exclude the President from those named respondents citing her immunity from civil or criminal cases during her incumbency.
The OSG is representing 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, Maj. Jose Gany Galanza of the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP) and Capt. Lowen Gil Marquez, chief of the AFP's 32nd Civil Relation Unit.
The officials were among those named respondents in the amparo petition 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.
Heavily armed men forcibly took Dominado and Arado in Barangay Cabanbanan in Oton town in Iloilo on April 12, 2007 after the victims' vehicle was waylaid. Their companion, human rights worker Jose Ely Garachico, was shot and seriously wounded but was left behind.
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.
Judge Narciso Aguilar, presiding judge of the Iloilo RTC Branch 33, earlier issued a writ of amparo and directed the respondents to release Arado and Dominado if the two activists are in their custody and to submit affidavits of their defense and other information related to the writ.
But in its petition, the OSG asked the court to deny the request of the victims' families to allow them to conduct ocular inspections on places where they suspect the victims have been taken including military camps, detachments, patrol bases and safe houses.
It said the petitioners have failed to back up their allegations that the respondents are involved in the abduction. It also pointed out the security risks of allowing access to these places without sufficient grounds.
The OSG said petition against the respondents are "baseless." It said the allegations being raised are similar to those in a petition for habeas corpus filed earlier by the victims' families.
The petition for habeas corpus was dismissed by the RTC Branch 34 presided by Judge Ma. Yolanda Panaguiton-Gaviño because the petitioners failed to show proof that the abducted activists were under the custody of the respondents.
"What as established by the evidence of the petitioners was the fact of disappearance of Mrs. Posa Dominado and Mr. Nilo Arado and nothing more," the court said in its order dismissing the habeas corpus petition.
But Gaviño urged the National Bureau of Investigation and the Philippine National Police to help the victims' families locate the missing activists.
In a preliminary hearing on January 14, the court granted the request of the OSG for 10 days to consolidate the reply of the respondents and for another 10 days for the petitioners to file their comment.
The next hearing has been set on February 18.