Writ of amparo needed for abducted green activists — CA justice
MANILA, Philippines — Despite the nearly unanimous decision of the Court of Appeals to dismiss the application for protective writs for abducted environmental activists Jhed Tamano and Jonila Castro, one of the appellate court’s justices disagrees.
Associate Justice San Gaspar-Gito wrote a 62-page dissenting opinion in the appellate court’s decision dated August 2, which junked the application for writs of habeas data and amparo for the activists due to their “failure to establish their claims as substantial evidence.”
“If petitioners are indeed terrorists, they should have been lawfully arrested, not abducted. To abduct them and thereafter legitimize such abduction by making it appear that they voluntarily surrender is to make a mockery of our constitutional guarantees. Such acts should not be tolerated,” Gaspar-Gito’s dissent read.
Despite the abduction being deemed “credible, straightforward, and worthy of belief,” the appellate court said that Tamano and Castro failed to prove that there was a continuing threat to their safety, as they were “no longer detained by their abductors at the time of the petition’s filing.”
However, Justice Gaspar-Gito explained that the established evidence is sufficient to issue a writ of amparo for the activists.
A writ of amparo protects individuals whose right to life, liberty, or security is violated or threatened by unlawful acts of public officials, employees or private entities.
The state's investigation
In her dissent, Justice Gaspar-Gito questioned who was responsible for the petitioners’ disappearance.
She argued that the state failed to exercise due diligence in investigating the events involving Castro and Tamano between September 2 and September 12. While there is no direct evidence implicating the 70th Infantry Battalion, Gaspar-Gito noted that circumstances suggest state agents may have been involved in the abduction.
“For starters, Castro asserted that in June 2022, military personnel approached her parents at their house in Plaridel, Bulacan, encouraging them to convince Castro to surrender and give up being a member of the NPA (New People’s Army). This piece of information is crucial, considering that the kidnappers mentioned that they wanted to return petitioners to their parents,” the dissent read.
The justice also criticized the refusal of police officers at the Orion Municipal Police Station to assist Castro's parents when they sought to file a report, get updates on the investigation, and request a form to search for their missing child.
The dissent criticized the respondents for trying to obscure their involvement by claiming that "informants" facilitated the petitioners' surrender.
When accused of fabricating the story of voluntary surrender, the respondents merely stated that they did not know the informants or who had turned the petitioners over to them, according to Gaspar-Gito.
“The information blackout prior to the alleged September 12 surrender is enough to raise doubt as to the veracity of respondents' claims,” the dissent read.
On the evening of Sept. 2, 2023, Tamano and Castro were forcibly taken by armed men in Orion, Bataan.
They "resurfaced" on Sept. 18, 2023, when the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict presented them as rebel returnees—a claim the activists denied during a press conference.
Rights and red-tagging
The justice also recognized that the rights of the abducted green activists were threatened when they were red-tagged by the military.
Citing a Supreme Court case that declared red-tagging as a threat to life, liberty and security, Gaspar-Gito pointed out out instances where the pair had been followed and surveilled by the police.
“The danger of further harm against petitioners is real, considering that they have recently been victims of enforced disappearance, which is the subject of the instant Petition,” Gaspar-Gito said in her dissenting opinion.
“It would be uncharacteristic for the courts, especially this Court, to simply fold their arms and ignore the palpable threats to petitioners' life, liberty and security and just wait for the irreversible to happen to them,” it added.
Appeal
Tamano and Castro’s camp said that the Court of Appeals has committed reversible errors and will appeal the dismissal of protective writs.
“We will file the appropriate remedy,” the pair’s lawyer Dino de Leon said in a message to Philstar.com.
Tamano and Castro are also facing oral defamation charges stemming from the previously dismissed perjury charges filed by the 70th Infantry Battalion.
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