The Court of Appeals has dismissed the petition of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers seeking protection against what they claim to be continuing harassment by the military on their members.
In a 26-page decision released on Monday, the CA’s Special 15th Division junked NUPL’s writs of amparo and habeas data petition.
Instead, the appellate court granted the plea of respondents led by President Rodrigo Duterte as commander-in-chief of AFP and Chief-of-Staff Gen. Benjamin Madrigal Jr., through Solicitor General Jose Calida, for dismissal of the petition for lack of merit.
After holding hearing on the petition, the CA ruled that there was no substantial evidence of alleged violations or threats to life, liberty and security of petitioners led by NUPL chairman Neri Colmenares and president Edre Olalia.
“We hold that individual petitioners failed to substantially prove that their life, liberty and security are threatened with violation,” stated decision authored by Associate Justice Pedro Corales.
“Even assuming with nary of iota of competent evidence on record, that the various attacks, harassment, surveillance, and other nefarious acts perpetrated against NUPL members are true as alleged in the petition, such incidents without sufficient corroborative evidence that the same was in fact on account of such membership, do not satisfy on their own the prerequisites for the grant of the privilege of the writ of amparo,” the CA stressed.
Associate Justices Stephen Cruz and Germano Francisco Legaspi concurred in this ruling.
Earlier this month, the CA also denied the plea of NUPL for issuance of temporary protection order against authorities.
The NUPL filed the petition before the SC last April and sought issuance of TPO to prohibit the respondents from the military from “further threatening their lives, liberty and security by any act.”
The group also asked the SC to compel respondents to disclose, submit and destroy all information gathered about the petitioners.
The NUPL cited in their petition specific incidents where their officers and members experienced the alleged harassment by military officers and “tagged, threatened, vilified or subjected to surveillance.”
The SC remanded the case to the appellate court for hearing of evidence.
The Office of the Solicitor General, as counsel for the respondents, had sought for the dismissal of the amparo petition and argued that petitioners failed to prove or provide factual basis in their allegation that the President and other respondents were responsible for the threats, harassment and intimidation against NUPL lawyers.
The Solicitor General Jose Calida stressed that the allegations of petitioners are “based on amorphous and uncertain ground.”
Lastly, Calida also argued that the petition should be denied because it did not include supporting documents and evidence as required by the rule on writ of amparo, saying petitioners merely raised “baseless and malicious accusations.”