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The Supreme Court (SC) has been asked to issue protection orders to two missing volunteers of the militant Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) and to help in locating them after they went missing last May 3 after attending a meeting in Valenzuela City.
Relatives of the two missing KMU volunteers, identified as Elizabeth “Loi” Magbanua and Alipio “Ador” Juat, filed before the SC a petition for a Writ of Amparo with pleas for temporary protection order and inspection order.
The petitioners believed that their relatives have been arrested by the military and detained in a military camp, either at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City or Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija.
The joint petition was filed for Loi by her niece Alyssa Marie Condez Magbanua and her long-time partner Ruth H. Maglalan. For Ador, the petition was filed by his eldest daughter Maureen T. Juat.
The petitioners were assisted by lawyer Minerva F. Lopez of the Gabriela Legal Services and lawyer Armando C. Teodoro Jr. of the Pro-Labor Legal Assistance Center. Rey E. Requejo
Named respondents in the petition were Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Bartolome Vicente Bacarro and other senior military officers, and retired Gen. Ricardo F. De Leon, officer-in-charge of the Department of National Defense (DND).
The petitioners told the SC justices that at the time of Loi’s disappearance, she is a volunteer and community organizer for KMU.
Ador, on the other hand, is a veteran activist. The SC was also told that both Loi and Ador were engaged in community organizing work in Tondo, Manila.
According to the petitioners, they already have gone to various police precincts and hospitals to look for Loi and Ador and failed to locate them.
Because of this, they petitioned the SC to compel the military to allow them to inspect Camp Aguinaldo and Fort Magsaysay where their kins are reportedly detained.
The SC had ruled that persons whose rights to life, liberty and security are threatened by law enforcers, their proper remedy before the courts is to file a petition for a Writ of Amparo.
Writ of Amparo “is a special writ to protect or enforce a constitutional right other than physical liberty.” The rules on the Writ of Amparo were approved by the SC in September 2007.