Filipino-American activist gets ultimatum from Court of Appeals

MANILA, Philippines - The Court of Appeals (CA) has given Filipino-American activist Melissa Roxas another chance to return to the country and affirm her testimony in her petition for a writ of amparo following her reported abduction and torture allegedly in the hands of military personnel in La Paz, Tarlac last month. 

But this time, the CA’s 16th division may possibly rule to archive Roxas’ petition should she again fail to attend the next hearing on July 24, Associate Justice Noel Tijam, who chairs the 16th division, said yesterday. 

Tijam told Roxas’ legal counsel, lawyer Rex Fernandez, that his client “seems to suggest that she doesn’t trust the court to give her relief” with her second absence in the hearing on her petition for the issuance of a protection order under the amparo rule. 

The CA justices said Roxas needs to affirm her testimony, adding that it is also necessary for her to personally appear before the court so she could be under its jurisdiction. 

Fernandez, however, said they are not really worried about the justices’ warning that the petition could be archived.

“That (archiving) is not really dismissal. It’s allowed in the rules of amparo when the witnesses cannot be presented. Anyway (the petition) can be revived anytime (she arrives),” he said.

Roxas was earlier given a chance to return to the country and pursue her petition during the June 18 hearing, where Fernandez told the appeals court that his client fled to the United States last June 1 for medical treatment. 

In an emotional news conference in Los Angeles Sunday morning (Manila time), Roxas recounted the torture she had suffered in the hands of a group of men whom she said were soldiers.

In the US, Arnedo Valera said his client would seek damages in a federal court against the Philippine government. 

The CA’s 16th division yesterday started deliberating on a medical report and other documents presented by Roxas’ lawyers. 

Dr. Geneve Reyes said Roxas sustained abrasions on her knees and wrists after she was “forcibly dragged from the house to the van” and “handcuffed.” 

Reyes, who prepared Roxas’ medical certificate, said the wounds could not be self-inflicted as they were “too deep” and that Roxas also suffered from “acute distress disorder” and “hypervigilance” or lack of sleep because of the incident. 

“It’s a psychological disorder where the patient is unable to function normally. She cannot eat, cannot sleep and cannot talk to anybody,” she said. 

During Tijam’s questioning, Reyes though admitted that she is a volunteer of the human rights group Karapatan and is the wife of Renato Reyes, secretary-general of the militant group Bayan. 

The corroborating witnesses, Juanito Carabeo and John Edward Handoc, failed to appear in yesterday’s hearing. 

Fernandez said Carabeo has declared openly that he would not come because of fear for his life while Handoc could not be contacted. 

The two were allegedly abducted along with Roxas last May 19 in Sitio Bagong Sikat, Barangay Kapanikian in La Paz, Tarlac by some 15 suspected military personnel, as Roxas alleged in her petition. 

Meanwhile, Maj. Gen. Ralph Villanueva, commanding general of the Army’s 7th Infantry Division based at Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija, yesterday said they are willing to face an investigation by any independent body on Roxas’ allegations.

Villanueva said it was unfair for officials of Bayan to pinpoint soldiers from Fort Magsaysay as behind the alleged torture.

He expressed doubts that Robles could prove her allegations and what he said were Bayan’s blanket accusations. – With Manny Galvez