Writ of Amparo One Key To Stop Disappearances
I was glancing through the channels lately, and I thought that the news anchor just made up a new term, but indeed, this new term, Writ of Amparo, is an actual legal term. And it is this Writ of Amparo that may be used as a means to help stop the disappearances here in The Philippines.
tags: (none)The writ of amparo is an order issued by a court to protect the constitutional rights of a person. The word “amparo” comes from the Spanish verb “amparar,” meaning “to protect.”
Former Supreme Court chief justice Artemio Panganiban said in an interview that the writ of amparo has been used in totalitarian countries to protect the rights of victims of disappearances.
In the Philippines, relatives of missing persons usually file a petition for habeas corpus to compel the state to produce persons thought to be victims of forced disappearances.
But Chief Justice Reynato Puno said recently that petitions for habeas corpus usually end up with state agents simply denying they had the missing person in their custody.
Panganiban explained that the writ of amparo would compel state agents to look for the missing person. And if the court were to find that the officials did not exert enough effort in finding the person, it could hold them liable, Panganiban added.
That’s very good to know.