Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 29)— The Court of Appeals (CA) has denied a lawyer group’s bid for protection from government officials who had linked the organization to the communist front.
The appellate court, in a ruling dated July 26 and released Monday, said it junked the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers’ petition for writ of amparo and habeas data against President Rodrigo Duterte and other officials of the administration due to lack of substantial evidence.
“We arduously examined the records and the evidence presented but found nothing that would point to a specific act committed by Pres. Duterte which violates or dents to petitioners’ right to life, liberty, or security,” the document read.
NUPL filed the plea in April, citing an “intensification of attacks by state agents” against the group as well as the “open disdain” of the administration for human rights activities and lawyers in the country.
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The CA, however, said the petitioners failed to prove their case against the administration and the President.
Any citizen can head to any court and ask for a writ of amparo, which, if granted, would give court protection from threats to the person’s life, liberty and security committed by government actors.
According to the rules, a writ of habeas data is a remedy available for those “whose right to privacy in life, liberty or security is violated or threatened by an unlawful act or omission of a public official or employee, or of a private individual or entity engaged in the gathering, collecting or storing of data or information regarding the person, family, home and correspondence of the aggrieved party.”
The court earlier this month also denied NUPL’s petition for a temporary protection order against Duterte as well as from key defense and military officials.
The lawyer group, meanwhile, said the ruling was “not surprising nor unexpected.”
“(It) only strengthens impressions that amparo remedy has time and time again failed expectations of victims for immediate and judicial protection. (It) also reinforces studied view that domestic remedies for redress of rights violations are by and large ineffective and unavailing especially under the present political situation,” NUPL said in a statement.
The group added it will contest the decision before the Supreme Court.
