Lim appeals ruling on habeas corpus

Army First Scout Ranger Regiment commander Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim asked the Court of Appeals (CA) yesterday to reconsider a decision to junk a petition for habeas corpus.

In a five-page motion for reconsideration filed through his legal counsel Vicente Verdadero, Lim said his continuous detention at Camp Capinpin in Tanay, Rizal was "tainted with illegality."

Lim was brought to Camp Capinpin in Tanay, Rizal last July 11 after meeting with Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez. He was accused of leading the failed coup last Feb. 24.

He said the CA erred in ruling that the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) rightfully detained him following the formal filing of charges against him.

The CA, according to Lim, erred in using as pattern the decision on previous cases resolved by the Supreme Court (SC). He said the petitions were junked because at the time of their filing, respondents had already been formally charged before the military courts and not because charge sheets had been prepared against them.

In its ruling last Aug. 23, the CA junked his wife Aloysia’s petition for habeas corpus seeking to set him free.

In the same ruling, the CA affirmed the AFP’s jurisdiction to conduct court martial proceedings against Lim. — Jose Rodel Clapano