Raymart, Claudine to appeal QC court ruling on amparo plea

MANILA, Philippines - Celebrity couple Raymart Santiago and Claudine Barretto yesterday vowed to elevate their case to the Supreme Court (SC) after a Quezon City court junked their petition for a writ of amparo against the Tulfo brothers.     

The couple’s lawyer, Alex Avisado, said they would file a motion for reconsideration with the SC.

In the order dated Aug. 6, Judge Maria Filomena Singh of the QC Regional Trial Court Branch 219 dismissed the petition and dissolved the temporary protective order issued on May 24 by Judge Bayani Vargas, who retired in July.

The judge said the rules on the writ of amparo state that “only extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances are proper subjects of a petition.”

However, Avisado maintained that a writ of amparo is a legal remedy available to those who seek freedom from fear.

The court ruling upheld a point earlier raised by broadcaster Erwin Tulfo’s counsel, Nelson Borja, who argued that the writ of amparo covered only cases of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances.

The couple filed the petition after brothers Raffy, Ben and Erwin Tulfo allegedly threatened them on their television program “T3” on TV5 following an airport brawl that involved the couple and the respondents’ elder brother, columnist Mon Tulfo.

In their petition, the couple asked to be assigned police escorts and asked for a court order to compel the Tulfos to “cease and desist from further threatening the life, liberty and security of the petitioners and their family.”

In May, Vargas issued a temporary protection order barring the Tulfo brothers from getting within 500 meters away from the couple while the case was being heard.

Borja sought the dismissal of the petition, asking the court to “take a second look” at it. He said the doctrines cited by the Santiago couple covered human rights abuses, while the charges against the Tulfo brothers were “just plain and simple cases of alleged threats and oral defamation.”