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SC ready with writ of amparo by Sept - Puno


The Supreme Court (SC) will be coming out with a new rule by September that will be the judiciary's contribution to helping solve, and prevent cases of extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances in the Philippines. Chief Justice Reynato Puno told reporters in Camp Crame on Friday morning that the Committee on the Revision on the Rules of Court was set to meet later in the day for the drafting of the Writ of Amparo. The meeting would be the third since the holding of the SC-sponsored national summit on extrajudicial killings. "We already have the first draft of the Writ of Amparo. This is the new remedy that will be crafted by the Supreme Court in order to address this problem of extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances," Puno said. "We hope to finish this Writ of Amparo, the new remedy, by next month's time," he added. According to the Chief Justice, it will no longer be enough for state authorities or state agents to deny that they have the body, or the custody of victims of extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances under the Writ of Amparo. He said agents of governments will be ordered by the court to act to locate the alleged victims, and their movement will be closely monitored by the court. "We will be setting up a standard for them (government agents) to follow. And if they cannot come up or satisfy this standard, then there would be proper relieves that can be granted by the court," Puno said. He noted that whenever victims file a petition for writ of habeas corpus, the authorities usually deny having in their custody the subject missing persons. "In a lot of instances, they are able to get away with it," said Puno. "With this new Writ of Amparo, that defense will no longer be available. And we shall be endowing the victims and the aggrieved parties with more remedies like better witness protection, temporary protection orders, right to what they call in other countries as habeas data – this is actually an exercise to right to information," Puno said. "In other words, if you have this right, it would be very, very difficult for State agents, State authorities to be able to escape from their culpability," he went on. Asked if the new rule can be retroactive, Puno said: "That will be subject to the approval of the members of the court. But there is no legal impediment to making the new rule retroactive. Remedial measures, as a general proposition, can be made retroactive without violating any Constitutional provision." The Supreme Court held the national summit on extrajudicial killings last month to find ways to address the problem, which has marred the image of the government due to the spate of incidents since the assumption into power of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. - GMANews.TV

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