Remedy against human rights abuses

On Oct. 24, 2007, the Supreme Court promulgated the rule on the writ of Amparo intended to address the intractable problem of extralegal killings and enforced disappearances. Extralegal killings are killings committed without due process of law, i.e. without legal safeguards or judicial proceedings. Enforced disappearances consist of the arrest, detention or abduction of a person by a government official or organized groups or private individuals acting with the direct or indirect acquiescence of the government; the refusal of the State to disclose the fate or whereabouts of the person concerned or refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty placing such persons outside the protection of the law. This is illustrated in the case of the brothers Manny and Raffy.

Manny and Raffy are residents of a Barangay in a province of Luzon where several NPA members are actively operating. In fact they have another brother Ka Rody who is a known NPA leader and has incurred the ire of the people in their place particularly the victims of summary execution.

One time, at past noon, while Manny was sleeping in their house, six soldiers in white shirts, fatigue pants and army boots led by M/Sgt. Roland and Pfc Diego barged in and roused Manny. Mistaking him to be Ka Rody. Despite his mother Edna’s disavowal that he was not Rody but Manny, Sgt Roland still handcuffed and brought him to the rear of the house where other soldiers started torturing and beating him up. Afterwards, he was brought near the road. He asked his mother to follow him but three soldiers stopped her and told her to stay.

Among the men who took him were brothers Leo, Cardo, Pablo and Ric who are members of the CAFGU and who acted as look-out with the help of two other brothers Romy and Doming. The men then blindfolded Manny and forced him into a white van driven by Sgt. Roland. After a short drive, the van stopped to pick up another blindfolded person. Both were beaten up along the way and later on, Manny recognized the man beside him as Raffy, his brother. They were abducted on suspicion that they were members or sympathizers of the NPAs because of their brother Ka Rody.

For one year and six months, Manny and Raffy were continuously detained in different safehouses where they were tortured, beaten, humiliated, threatened and intimidated. Even the Major General who headed the infantry battalion which abducted, detained and tortured them was aware of, tolerated and encouraged their abduction as well as other civilians without due process of law and without probable cause.

So when Manny and Raffy saw the opportunity to escape as their guards got drunk, they did so and succeeded in fleeing after 18 months of detention. Then they filed a petition in court which was later on amended to a petition for a writ of Amparo against the Secretary of National Defense (DND) and the Armed Forces (AFP) Chief, which the Supreme Court referred to the Court of Appeals (CA) for hearing.

After hearing, the CA ruled in favor of Manny and Raffy and granted the privilege of the writ of Amparo requiring the DND Secretary and the AFP Chief of Staff to submit to the court any official and unofficial reports of the investigation in connection with their case; to confirm in writing the present places of assignment of M/Sgt Roland and Diego; and to cause to be produced before the court the medical reports, records and charts of any treatment or recommended medicines given to them as well as the list of army medical personnel who attended to them.

The DND Secretary and the AFP Chief appealed this decision to the SC. They contended that the evidence presented consisting merely of the incredible, uncorroborated, contradictory and self serving testimony of Manny does not satisfy the degree of proof required to grant the writ. They also argued that since the enforced disappearance of Manny and Raffy has now passed as they have escaped and no longer in detention, the writ is no longer available.

But the SC still upheld the CA decision. The SC ruled that under the Philippine experience on human rights abuses, the writ of Amparo offers a better preventive and curative remedy to extralegal killings and enforced disappearance and threats thereof. It provided a rapid judicial relief as it partakes of a summary proceeding that requires only substantial evidence or such relevant evidence that a reasonable mind might accept as adequate to support a conclusion.

In this case, the abduction, torture and escape of Manny and Raffy were narrated by Manny in a clear and convincing manner. His account is dotted with countless candid details of their harrowing experience and tenacious will to escape, captured through different senses and etched in his memory, from the time he was roused from sleep, blindfolded and forced into a van together with his brother Raffy, beaten and tortured in different safehouses until they were able to escape 18 months later. Manny’s affidavit and testimony were corroborated by Raffy’s affidavit and the testimony and medical reports of the forensic specialist as well as by the pictures of the scars left by the physical injuries inflicted on them.

And even if they are already physically free, the people who have abducted and detained them are still at large and have not been accountable in any way. They are directly connected with the armed forces and are thus in a position to threaten Manny and Raffy’s rights to life, liberty and violate their right to security or the freedom from fear, guarantee of physical and psychological integrity or right against torture and guarantee of protection of their rights by the government. (The Secretary of the DND and Chief of Staff, AFP vs. Manalo and Manalo, G.R. 180906, October 7, 2008)

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