'Stop military from talking about habeas data petition'

CEBU, Philippines - The regional chairman of the militant group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan yesterday asked the court to admonish the commanding general of the Armed Forces of the Philippines Central Command for alleged defiance of an order for them to refrain from talking about his petition for habeas data before the media while the case is still pending for resolution.

Paul Rodriguez alleged that Maj. Gen. Armando Cunanan through his spokesman, Maj. Christopher Tampus, defied Judge Silvestre Maamo’s order during the March 23 hearing of his petition for them to refrain from discussing the merits of the case before the media.

Tampus, speaking on behalf of Cunanan, was quoted in the newspaper reports that saw print last March 25 denying that Rodriguez was in their order of battle. He alleged that the information could have come from the Communist Party of the Philippines.

According to Rodriguez, such statement shows disrespect to the court who ordered them to refrain from talking on the merits of his petition. Rodriguez prayed that Cunanan be admonished and stopped from issuing further statements to the media.

Rodriguez earlier filed a petition for habeas data against the military and police officials who were allegedly responsible in listing his name under the order of battle against suspected rebels.

He asked that the documents will be ordered destroyed by the court through the petition for habeas data.

The petition for habeas data is one of the remedies available under the Supreme Court Administrative Order 08-1-16 that took effect in February last year.

Aside from Cunanan, Cebu Provincial Police Office director Carmelo Valmoria, the chief of the Military Intelligence Group of Centcom and the Regional Mobile Group-7 were also named respondents.

Rodriguez, an active member of Bayan since it was founded in 1980, claimed that sometime in August 2005, his friends from media told him that he was in the military order of battle for allegedly being a member of the New People’s Army.

Rodriguez said he choose to ignore the report as his conscience was reportedly clear. The same information again cropped up in 2006 but again he ignored it considering that there was also no available remedy for him to correct it.

However, in May 2008 he came across a document with a heading “order of battle of the Central Visayas Regional Party Command.”

Rodriguez said the document contained his name and that of other militant leaders Jaime Paglinawan, Ramon Patriarca, Sergio Repuela and Demetrio Carnece.

The said document was attached in the ex-parte motion that the Provincial Prosecutor’s Office has filed before the RTC in Danao to insert the true name of a certain Ka Yuri in the alias warrant for the rebellion case against Patriarca and other accused.

Rodriguez said he was alarmed for his security because what he thought at first was rumor is now becoming true especially with the recent arrest of Patriarca.

According to him, the order of battle released by the military and the police which contained his name is violative of his rights to security and poses a threat to his life and liberty. — Fred P. Languido/WAB   (THE FREEMAN)