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The Supreme Court issued on Wednesday two writs of
habeas data, marking the writ’s first issuance since the
promulgation of the habeas data guidelines on February 2.
The habeas data rules were
promulgated as a remedy to enforce the right to informational
privacy and the complementary “right to truth”, and as
additional remedy to protect the right to life, liberty or security
of a person.
In separate two-page resolutions
dated March 11, the High Court en banc resolved to grant two
separate petitions for the writs of habeas data and amparo, filed by
Ayala Foundation, Inc. Executive Vice President Guillermo Luz and
Anakpawis party-list member Francis Saez, on March 3 and March 5,
2008, respectively.
This brings to 23 the total
number of amparo writs issued since the amparo rules took effect on
October 24, 2007.
In both cases, the respondents
included Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Chief Gen. Hermogenes
Esperon and Philippine National Police Chief, Director-General
Avelino Razon Jr.
In his petition, Luz prayed that
Esperon and involved military agents appear before the Court of
Appeals to confirm whether the military has been conducting
surveillance operations on him for his suspected involvement in a
plot to oust President Gloria Arroyo, particularly that of his
alleged participation in Peninsula Hotel standoff.
Meanwhile, Saez asked the Court
to ask respondents, including Esperon, to take his name out from the
“list of persons who are considered as targets for neutralization
by the [AFP].” He also seeks the destruction of documents that he
claimed the AFP had forced him into signing, which stated he is a
rebel returnee and agreed to become an intelligence asset.
The Court likewise resolved to
grant the petition for amparo filed by Traveler’s News Publisher
Nilo Baculo Sr. who prayed for protection from an alleged murder
plot by respondents Mayor Paulino Salvador Leachon and other
officials of Calapan City, Oriental Mindoro. Baculo exposed alleged
anomalies in the locality.
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