(Eagle News)–Karapatan and other groups on Monday, July 29, filed a petition for review assailing an appellate court’s decision junking their petition for writs of amparo and habeas data.
Karapatan, the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines and Gabriela filed the petition for review on certiorari before the Supreme Court after the Court of Appeals 14th division dismissed their request for the writs which they filed due to the alleged red-tagging and illegal arrests of individuals of the present administration.
“The dismissal of the petition for the writs of amparo and habeas data was already tantamount to the CA’s complicity on the attacks perpetrated against us,” Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay said.
Palabay noted that the appellate court “disallowed” them from presenting “testimonial evidence,” and they “struck down the petition on the basis of technicalities.”
She added the dismissal will “worsen the impunity in the country and will further enable state forces to continue terrorizing individuals critical of the government.”
“This was not an impartial procedure determined to hear the aggrieved party but a ruling that favored the perpetrators and masterminds behind the policies that has led to the crackdown on human rights defenders,” Palabay added, citing President Rodrigo Duterte as the mastermind.
Palabay said their petition for review on certiorari was “urgent.”
