Leaving no stone unturned in disseminating the Rule on the Writ of Amparo (the Rule), which took effect on October 24, the Supreme Court, through a series of lecture-fora and consultative meetings, has initiated the education of the public on the said writ described by Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno as “the greatest legal weapon to protect the constitutional rights of our people.”

Amparo comes from the Spanish word amparar which literally means “to protect.”
The writof amparo is the most potent remedy available to any person whose right to life, liberty, and security has been violated or is threatened with violation by an unlawful act or omission by public officials or employees and by private individuals or entities. The Amparo Rule was promulgated pursuant to the recommendations from the National Consultative Summit on Extrajudicial Killings and Enforced Disappearances called last July by Chief Justice Puno.

On October 4, Justice Adolfo S. Azcuna talked on Supreme Court Remedies and Proposals Towards A More Effective Court-Related Process for the Protection of Human Rights during a discussion dubbed as Forum on the Expanded Role of the Supreme Court on Human Rights Protection held at the Penthouse, UP Law Center in Diliman, Quezon City. The Forum, organized by the UP Law Center Institute on Human Rights, had former UP Deans Pacifico A. Agabin and Raul Pangalangan, and Free Legal Assistance Group lawyer Jose Manuel I. Diokno for its panel of reactors.

Last October 15, Justice Azcuna was the featured lecturer in the Lecture Forum on The Rule on the Writ of Amparo for Regional Trial Court Judges of the National Capital Region at the Court of Appeals Auditorium, Centennial Building, Ma. Orosa St., Manila. The Forum was organized by the SC’s education and training arm, the Philippine Judicial Academy (PHILJA). Justices Ma. Alicia Austria-Martinez and Dante O. Tinga served as panelists.

Justice Azcuna briefed the RTC judges on the various sections of the Rule. During the forum, he also stressed that the Court encourages the use of the term “extralegal”  instead of “extrajudicial” in describing the killings. He explained that “extrajudicial killing” is not a neutral term since under the international law such refers to killings where the suspects are agents of the state. “We wanted to correct that. To be neutral, we used  a United Nations (UN) terminology which does not condemn a particular sector for a killing,” he said.

Justice Azcuna said that he had first proposed the adoption of the writ of amparo when he was a delegate to the 1971 Constitutional Convention and later in 1986 when he was among the delegates to the Constitutional Commission. “For 20 years, it (referring to the writ of amparo) was in hibernation because it was felt that it was not needed since we had remedies to protect human rights such as certiorari, prohibition, mandamus, and injunction,” he said.

Chief Justice Puno, in his opening remarks, stressed to the NCR RTC Judges that they now have in their hands “the greatest legal weapon to protect the constitutional right of our people.” He described the writ of amparo as the Judiciary’s humble offering to the altar of human rights in the Philippines, saying that critics “can criticize the Judiciary with real and imagined complaints, but they cannot charge it with inertness, with paralysis and with amnesia in protecting the constitutional rights of our people.” The Chief Justice chairs the SC Committee on the Revision of the Rules of Court which drafted the Rule. Justices Martinez, Azcuna, Tinga, and Nachura are members of the said Committee.

Earlier on October 11,  Justice Antonio Eduardo B. Nachura gave a similar lecture this time to the officers and personnel of the Department of National Defense (DND) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) at the AFP Commissioned Officer’s Club, Camp General Emilio Aguinaldo, Quezon City. The DND-AFP lecture was held upon the request of Defense Secretary Gilberto C. Teodoro, Jr. who had said that “an enlightened DND and AFP will be in a better positioin to help the justice system in providing an expeditious resolution of the potential controversies raised before it under the Rule.”

Justice Nachura followed this with two lectures on October 25: first, before lawyers of the Department of  Justice and attached agencies at the Grand Boulevard Hotel in the morning and in the afternoon, before officials of the Philippine National Police (PNP) at the PNP Multi-Purpose Hall in Camp Crame.

He then flew to Tacloban City to give lecture on October 25 to certain Municipal Trial Court judges in an acitivity sponsored by the Philippine Judicial Academy. 

Assistant Court Administrator Jose Midas P. Marquez, who is also concurrently the SC Public Information Office Chief and Chief of the Staff of the Office of the Chief Justice, also gave a similar lecture on October 26 at the Ciudad Christhia Resort, San Mateo, Rizal before officials and employees of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) upon the invitation of CHR Chair Purificacion V Quisumbing.

Chief Justice Puno has said that the writ of amparo will provide the victims of extralegal killings and enforced disappearances the protection they need and the promise of vindication for their rights, as well as empower the courts to issue reliefs that may be granted through judicial orders of protection, production, inspection, and other reliefs to safeguard one’s life and liberty. (With reports from Atty. Maricel Marcial-Oquendo, Office of Justice Nachura)