Friday, February 22, 2008 Writ offers protection against 'order of battle'
A SUPREME COURT (SC) official was in Cebu yesterday to present the concept of habeas data to college students.
Addressing students from the University of San Carlos (USC), lawyer Jose Midas Marquez, the SC information officer, described the writ as an “independent remedy to enforce right of information.”
“Its literal translation is that you should have data,” he said.
The SC earlier provided the guidelines for the issuance of writs of habeas data. The remedy, together with the writ of habeas Corpus and the writ of amparo, is aimed at curbing the problem of extralegal killings and enforced disappearances.
The writ of habeas data is the youngest of what Chief Justice Reynato Puno calls the three “great libertarian writs.”
The roots of the writ of habeas data can be traced to the Council of Europe’s 10th Convention on Data Protection of 1981.”
The writ, he explained, can be used as safeguard against the baseless inclusion of peoples’ names in police and military order of battle.
Justify
“People can petition the court of appeals to order agencies to present their lists and justify its contents,” he said.
“The remedy is available to any person whose right to privacy in life, liberty or security is violated or threatened in the information gathering activities of a government agency or a public official or employee,” he said.
It can also be used against financial records being kept by banking institutions.
In justifying the issuance of the new remedy, the SC noted that advances in technology, while making the process of gathering and disseminating information faster, has also eroded the individual’s control of information and has diminished his right to privacy.
Unsettling
“There is more than a chilling prospect that one’s profile formed from the gathering of data from various sources may divulge private information to the public. There is also the unsettling thought that these data may be inaccurate, outdated or worse, misused,” Chief Justice Puno had said.
According to Puno, many violations of the right to informational privacy have taken place around the globe.
For instance, the US State Department found that more than 90 countries monitor the communications of political opponents, human rights workers, journalists, and labor organizers.
There have also been more than 100,000 illegal wiretaps in France done by private parties and mostly on behalf of the government. (KNR)
