Amparo plea for missing CAR activist heard today

La Trinidad, Benguet – Government counsels will be pitted against human rights lawyers today as the court hears the petition for a writ of amparo filed by the family of Cordillera activist James Balao who has been missing since Sept. 17.

Led by the Office of the Solicitor General, the government panel will include lawyers from the military’s Judge Advocate Group Services, who will stand on behalf of President Arroyo, Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro, Interior and Local Government Secretary Ronaldo Puno, Armed Forces chief Gen. Alexander Yano and Philippine National Police chief Director General Jesus Verzosa, to answer allegations that government security forces seized Balao, 47, of the left-leaning Cordillera People’s Alliance.

Judge Benigno Galacgac of Regional Trial Court Branch 63 has subpoenaed Mrs. Arroyo, Teodoro, Puno, Yano and Verzosa to attend the hearing.

A writ of amparo is an inspection order directing public officers who control military and police detention facilities where a detainee is allegedly kept to allow authorized persons “to inspect, measure and survey the property or any related object or operation.”

Maj. Rosendo Armas, spokes­man of the Armed Forces’ Northern Luzon Command, said the military will cooperate in the ongoing investigation into Balao’s disappearance, though insisting that they are not keeping the missing activist.

Domestic and international pressure has mounted on the government over the disappearance of Balao, president of the Chinese-Japanese Oclupan clan in Benguet and an alumnus of the University of the Philippines-Baguio.  

Cordillera police intelligence agents are zeroing in on various angles in Balao’s disappearance: the involvement of the military, police intelligence operatives or common criminals; personal dealings; or internal purging in the communist movement.