The human rights group Karapatan scored the Court of Appeals for its ‘cowardly decision’ on the petition for the writ of habeas corpus and writ of amparo petitions of Mrs. Edith Burgos, mother of missing activist Jonas Burgos.
"CA justices are trying to be on the safe side at the expense of the life of Jonas, their dismissal of the case won’t help find him," said Marie Hilao-Enriquez, Karapatan Secretary General.
The human rights group Karapatan scored the Court of Appeals for its ‘cowardly decision’ on the petition for the writ of habeas corpus and writ of amparo petitions of Mrs. Edith Burgos, mother of missing activist Jonas Burgos.
"CA justices are trying to be on the safe side at the expense of the life of Jonas, their dismissal of the case won’t help find him," said Marie Hilao-Enriquez, Karapatan Secretary General.
Karapatan is incredulous of the CA’s belief that the military had nothing to do with Jonas’ abduction when so much evidence have been provided by the petitioners and state security forces incriminated itself by claiming Jonas to be a rebel, thus revealing their motive.
Hilao-Enriquez criticized the CA for its "anti-victim" decision. "At first glance, the CA seems not to have a clear stand. Their criticism on the lack of investigation by the police and military smacks of tokenism which they thought would appease the Burgos family," Enriquez said, adding that "It’s plain and simple cover-up of the crime and the magistrates refused to see through it."
The human rights group said that since last year, many of the members of the CA had not successfully tried cases of human rights violations and had been remiss in giving remedy to victims seeking redress.
It will be recalled that the CA had made a similar cowardly decision on the habeas corpus petition for UP students Karen Empeño and Sherlyn Cadapan when it said "the military is not telling the truth" but on the same breath said there is no proof that the military have the missing women in their custody.
"If our judges continue to act and decide this way, all remedies resorted to by the Supreme Court will be made inutile and unavailing to the victims and their families. Worse, this will breed more impunity," Hilao-Enriquez concluded.###