APPELLATE court justices questioned Monday the seriousness of Filipino-American activist Melissa Roxas’s amparo petition after she repeatedly snubbed court hearings but chose to air her concerns before a press conference in the United States.

Associate Justice Noel Tijam, chair of the Court of Appeals (CA) Special 16th Division, expressed doubts in the court jurisdiction over Roxas, especially since she has not made herself available to the court’s scrutiny of her petition, while she chose to ventilate her grievances before other fora.

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“Considering the physical absence of the petitioner from the jurisdiction of this court, there is lack of certainty if this court is competent to grant her relief or protection. What kind of relief is the petitioner asking if she is already under the protection of the US?” Tijam said.

Tijam made the comment after Roxas, for the second consecutive time, failed to attend the hearings to subscribe to her affidavit and attest her allegations that she had been abducted and tortured on suspicion that she is a member of the New People’s Army (NPA).

The magistrate said that even if the petition is granted, the protection sought by Roxas would be ineffective since she is out of the country, anyway.

“Although we understand that she cannot be present because of fear, which is a natural emotion, we have agreed to reset this case on the condition that should the petitioner failed to appear, the case will be sent to archive. This court is saddled with cases involving persons who are here in the Philippines and not outside,” he added.

To archive a case means that the court will not immediately resolve it until the petitioner appears, and until such time that proper government agencies, such as the police or the Commission on Human Rights, which is conducting an independent probe on the case, submit an evidence that would establish the identity of respondents and link them to the alleged crime.

Roxas, a member of the militant group Bayan-USA, said she and two other Bayan members were forcibly taken by military personnel detailed at the Philippine Army’s 7th Infantry Division based in Tarlac last May 19 in La Paz, Tarlac.

She said she was in Tarlac as a volunteer health worker, as well as to work on her novel, and was only released from captivity after six days.

During her emotional press conference held in Los Angeles in California, US, Roxas recounted her ordeal in the hands of armed men believed to be soldiers.

Rex Fernandez, lawyer for Roxas, assured the CA that his client is still in the jurisdiction of the court and the petitioner will be available in the next hearing on July 24.

Invoking the principle of command responsibility, Fernandez also defended their move to implead President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in the case as there seemed to be a “systematic pattern and state policy to neutralize the so-called Left.”

Fernandez further broached the idea of a “teleconference hearing,” if the court would permit in lieu of her physical presence in court, all at the expense of the petitioner.

But State Solicitor Bernardo Villar objected to Roxas’s continued absence from the hearing, pointing out that her press conference was an insult to the jurisdiction of the court.

Villar maintained the respondents’ position that the alleged abduction was stage-managed to put the military in bad light.

A Malacañang official also advised everyone to refrain from speculating and prejudging the military, stressing that it is better to await the results of the ongoing investigations.

Deputy Presidential spokesperson Lorelei Fajardo said that based on initial reports, the abduction of Roxas supposedly is still being verified by authorities, including the military.

Meanwhile, a doctor who examined Roxas a day after she was released by her alleged captors admitted that she had been commissioned by the rights group Karapatan to prepare the medical report of the petitioner.

Dr. Geneve Reyes, wife of Bayan secretary-general Renato Reyes and a volunteer doctor of Karapatan, testified that in her examination of Roxas, her injuries were consistent with her claims of torture and ill-treatment.

Among those cited in her medical reports were black and brown spots all over her body allegedly caused by punching, poking and slapping, as well as healing abrasions on her arms and knees caused by her handcuffing and dragging her while blindfolded by her captors.

Reyes said these injuries did not seem to be self-inflicted, and that Roxas herself claimed that her wounds have been cleaned up by a certain Rose while she was still in detention.

However, upon cross-examination of Tijam, the court pointed out that the medical reports only concentrated on body parts with visible injuries, and no photos would show that the pictures belonged to the complainant.

Tijam further elicited from Reyes the fact that she herself is affiliated with the militant group when he asked why a Tondo community doctor would come all the way to Quezon City to administer medical examination of Roxas.

Reyes said that although she works in Tondo, she lived in Quezon City, just near the residence of Roxas’s relatives. She also said that while they were a team of physicians who examined the victim, she was the one who prepared the five-page report, as requested by Karapatan. (ECV/With JMR/Sunnex)