MANILA, Philippines — The Court of Appeals has denied the application of protection writs for environmental activists Jhed Tamano and Jonila Castro who were abducted by the military in September 2023.
In a 58-page decision promulgated on August 2, the appellate court’s former special eight division of five junked the application of the privilege of writ of habeas data and amparo for the activists due to their “failure to establish their claims as substantial evidence.”
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The court, however, called the abduction and their detention “credible, straightforward, and worthy of belief.”
“However, whether they are entitled to the privilege of the writs of amparo and habeas data is another matter altogether. After examination of the parties' respective evidence, We are of the view that petitioners failed to prove their allegations by substantial evidence,” the court said.
The Court of Appeals said that the activists failed to prove that there is a continuing threat to them as they were “no longer detained by their abductors at the time of the filing of the petition.”
“Thus, any restraint upon their liberty had already ceased by then and they must now show the existence of a continuing or imminent threat for the privilege of the writ to issue,” the court’s decision read.
The court also said that there is no proof of a continuing threat against Tamano and Castro as the pair claimed ongoing surveillance despite the Supreme Court’s issuance of a temporary protection order.
In February this year, the Supreme Court granted the activists’ application of the writs. The high court also included a temporary protection order for the pair while the merits of the petition is being heard before the Court of Appeals.
Once a Temporary Protective Order is granted, law enforcement officers and government officials are prohibited from entering within a one-kilometer radius of the individual's location.
The appellate court also added that there is no evidence of continuing threat or state participation as the activists “failed to sufficiently identify the perpetrators of their abduction.”
“To recapitulate, it is readily discernible that the privilege of the writ of amparo cannot be granted for petitioners' failure to support their claim of the existence of a continuing threat of their lives, liberty, and security, even while this petition was being heard,” the Court of Appeals said.
“Likewise, petitioners have not shown by substantial evidence that the military or other government agencies are involved in their abduction and detention from 2 September to 1 September 2023, or any of the unsubstantiated continuing threats petitioners allegedly received thereafter and until the termination of this trial,” it added.
Tamano and Castro are also facing oral defamation charges which stemmed from the dismissed perjury charges filed by the 70th infantry battalion.
The perjury charge was after the pair were presented by the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict as rebel returnees which the activists denied during a press conference.
The press conference, held on Sept. 18, 2023, was made for Tamano and Castro after “resurfacing” from their disappearance on Sept. 2, 2023 in Bataan.
In a message to Philstar.com, the pair’s lawyer Dino De Leon said that they believe that the appellate court “committed reversible errors.”
“We will file the appropriate remedy,” De Leon said.