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THE Court of Appeals (CA) has sustained its earlier decision
ordering the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to open four of
its camps for inspection by relatives of two missing alleged leaders
of the New People’s Army (NPA) in Pampanga.
The appellate court’s Fifth Division, in a
one-page resolution penned by Associate Justice Martin Villarama,
Jr., dismissed the motion for reconsideration filed by the AFP and
the Philippine National Police (PNP) seeking a reversal of its
earlier decision, saying that it found no compelling reason to
reverse it.
The appellate court had earlier granted the writ
of amparo petition of Leny and Lolita Robiños ordering the
respondents, then AFP Chief of Staff Hermogenes Espe-ron Jr. and
then PNP Director General Avelino Razon to stop harassing the
petitioners and open the detention centers located in the AFP’s
various camps.
The subject detention cells are located in the
Philippine Army’s 69th Infantry Battalion in Me-xico, Pampanga and
Bamban, Tarlac, 7th Infantry Division in Fort Magsaysay in Laur,
Nueva Ecija and 24th Infantry Battalion in Limay, Bataan.
The AFP and PNP leadership, through the Office
of the Solicitor General, denied having abducted the two missing
persons. It also pointed out that for security reasons, the
inspection could only be allowed in selected areas of the camps.
“We have carefully perused the motion for
reconsideration filed by the public respondents through the Office
of the Solicitor General, and the rejoinder [treated as comment]
thereto filed by the petitioners, through counsel, of our decision
of Nov. 29, 2007 and find no cogent or compelling reason to
reconsider the same,” the court stressed.
In its November 29, 2007 ruling, the appellate
court found meritorious the evidence presented by the petitioners
for a temporary protection order, inspection order, and presentation
of their missing relatives identified as Romulo Robiños and Ryan
Supan, who were suspected to be NPA leaders in Pampanga.
The appellate court also noted in its earlier
decision that the steps taken by the military and police leadership
“fall short of the extraordinary diligence required under the
Rule.”
Court records showed that at midnight of
November 17, 2006, four armed men wearing military uniforms forcibly
took the two from the Robiños’ house in Barangay Tabon, Angeles
City, Pampanga.
-- William B. Depasupil
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