Thursday, March 27, 2008 After raid, Tabunan couple gets writ of amparo
THE Regional Trial Court (RTC) has issued a writ of amparo against the barangay officials of Tabunan, Cebu City who allegedly raided a couple’s ampalaya farm thinking they grew marijuana.
“You, the respondents are hereby directed to file your return of this writ,” commanded RTC Judge Silvestre Maamo in the order that court process servers carried by hand to the mountain barangay yesterday afternoon.
With the writ, the respondents-Tabunan Barangay Captain Bernabe Arcayan, chief of tanods Romeo Pador and barangay tanods Alberto and Christopher Alivio, Carmelo Revales, Roberto Alimorin and Bienvenido and Winelo Arcayan-are prohibited from having anything to do with spouses Nerio and Soledad Pador.
Judge Maamo will hear the petition on its merits on April 2.
Since October last year, the Supreme Court has allowed trial courts to issue “judicial orders of protection, production, inspection and other relief to safeguard life and liberty.” The writ of amparo was intended to help families whose loved ones had been killed or had disappeared.
Pador, in the petition prepared by Atty. Rameses Victorius Villagonzalo, said the officials suspected them of maintaining a marijuana plantation.
Despite a raid that yielded nothing but ampalaya, they were still “invited” to a hearing.
They refused to attend the hearing upon Villagonzalo’s advice and instead submitted a letter-reply that the barangay captain accepted, although he refused to sign the couple’s copy.
“The raid, the invitation letter and the refusal of the respondent barangay captain to receive the petitioners’ letter-reply left chilling effects upon the spines of the petitioner,” they said.
This caused the petitioners “sleepless nights, insecurity, hurt feelings and fear, and they must be given protection under the law,” the petition said.
The Padors narrated in the petition how the officials raided their ampalaya plantation last March 17.
“Such raid, based on the false accusation of a very serious crime of planting marijuana, is as serious and grave as actual planting of marijuana itself,” said the petition prepared by Villagonzalo.
When the Padors tried to find out how they got linked to marijuana planting, they were given “invitation letters for an unknown purpose.” (KNR)
