MANILA, Philippines - The Court of Appeals (CA) has been asked to order the transfer of the 43 health workers arrested in Rizal province last month after being suspected to be New People’s Army (NPA) members from military to police custody.
In a 16-page petition with the CA’s Special First Division, relatives of the health workers sought their transfer from Camp Capinpin in Tanay, Rizal to the Philippine National Police headquarters at Camp Crame in Quezon City pending resolution of their petition seeking the release of the detainees.
The petitioners asked the CA to protect the constitutional rights of the detainees under the Bill of Rights that they alleged are being violated by the military.
They alleged that their relatives have been living in “a chord of fear and fright” at Camp Capinpin since they were held there last Feb. 6.
Meanwhile, two more justices – Magdangal de Leon and Sesinando Villon – were added to the CA division hearing the habeas corpus petition of the health workers’ relatives after the three original members of the Special First Division failed to come up with a unanimous vote on the case.