SC issues temporary protection order for kin of missing Albay activist

The Supreme Court (SC) has issued a temporary protection order in favor of the relatives of a missing activist in Albay province.

In a notice, the SC En Banc granted a protection order prohibiting the respondents from approaching petitioner Elna Corazon Jazmines and her immediate family.

Jazmines filed the petition for a writ of amparo and a writ of habeas data in November 2024 for James Jazmines, her husband, who was allegedly abducted in August 2024.

The writ of amparo is available to persons whose rights to life, liberty, and security are being threatened or violated by public officials, employees, or private individuals or entities. It covers extralegal killings and enforced disappearances, or threats.

Meanwhile, the writ of habeas data is a remedy available to a person whose right to privacy, liberty, or security is violated or threatened with violation by a public official or a private individual who gathers, collects, or stores information on the aggrieved party, their family, home, and correspondence.

The respondents are Armed Forces of the Philippines chief of staff General Romeo Brawner Jr., former Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Police General Rommel Marbil, PNP chief Police General Nicolas Torre III, among others.

Meanwhile, the SC issued the writs returnable to the Court of Appeals (CA), which will then immediately raffle the case among its incumbent associate justices.

The SC also directed the respondents to comment on the petition before the CA within 72 hours and five days. —LDF, GMA Integrated News