'Writ of habeas data' to uphold right to truth - SC

As part of efforts to address extrajudicial killings and involuntary disappearances, the Supreme Court will make available the legal recourse of “writ of habeas data," which would allow a person to get information held by authorities related to him or his immediate relatives, Chief Justice Reynato Puno said Thursday. Puno, in a speech at Silliman University in Dumaguete City, said the writ of habeas data would uphold the “right to truth." "The exercise of the right to truth will expose all the falsehoods, all the fabrications that public authorities and private persons usually put up to evade responsibility in cases of extralegal killings and involuntary disappearances," Puno said. "This is the right to know what types of data about an individual are stored on manual and automatic databases, and it demands that there must be transparency on the gathering and processing of such data," he explained. The Chief Justice said the judiciary is considering promulgating rules that will govern the issuance of the writ of habeas data, which is already being implemented in Latin American countries formerly under military dictatorships such as Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay and Peru. The Chief Justice said the writ of habeas data will be effective when enforced alongside the “writ of amparo," under which authorities cannot simply deny holding an abducted person but are compelled to look for the victim. If authorities fail to find the victim, the court may hold them accountable. The Supreme Court had said it will implement the writ of amparo by September. "These writs are our humble offering to our people, to show our gratitude for their trust and confidence. We will demonstrate this fidelity to the human rights of the Filipino, not with a brittle wishbone, but with an unbending backbone," Puno said. "The number of victims of extrajudicial killings and involuntary disappearances is already chilling as it is, and we are still counting. This bulging number of victims of human rights violations and the failure to bring the perpetrators to swift justice have brought us to what observers derisively call a culture of impunity," Puno said. Human rights group Karapatan has said that from 2001 to 2007, or the years President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has held power, nearly 900 extrajudicial killings and 180 cases of enforced disappearances were documented throughout the country. Among the missing is activist Jonas Burgos, son of the late press freedom icon Jose “Joe" Burgos Jr, who was abducted on April 28 at a mall in Quezon City. Human rights group and the Burgos family have alleged that Jonas was abducted by the military. Jonas’ mother, Edita, has filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus – which seeks to compel authorities to produce Jonas – that is now being heard by the Court of Appeals. -GMANews.TV