WRIT OF AMPARO

PETITION FOR WRIT OF AMPARO

SECTION 1. Petition. The petition for a writ of amparo is a remedy

available to any person whose right to life, liberty and security is
violated or threatened with violation by an unlawful act or omission of a
public official or employee, or of a private individual or entity.
The writ shall cover extralegal killings and enforced disappearances or
threats thereof.
ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCE
Enforced disappearance - the arrest, detention, abduction or any
other form of deprivation of liberty by agents of the State or by persons
or groups of persons acting with the authorization, support or
acquiescence of the State, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the
deprivation of liberty or by concealment of the fate or whereabouts of
the disappeared person, which place such a person outside the
protection of the law. (Art. 2 International Convention for the
Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance)
NATURE OF THE WRIT
A protective remedy against violations or threats of violation against
the rights to life, liberty and security. It embodies, as a remedy, the courts
directive to police agencies to undertake specified courses of action to address
the disappearance of an individual.
It does not determine guilt nor pinpoint criminal culpability for the
disappearance; rather, it determines responsibility, or at
least accountability, for the enforced disappearance for purposes of
imposing the appropriate remedies to address the disappearance.
(Razon vs Tagitis)
primary goal of addressing the disappearance, so that the life of the
victim is preserved and his liberty and security are restored.

DETERMINE RESPONSIBILITY
Responsibility refers to the extent the actors have been established
by substantial evidence to have participated in whatever way, by action
or omission, in an enforced disappearance, as a measure of the remedies
this Court shall craft, among them, the directive to file the appropriate
criminal and civil cases against the responsible parties in the proper
courts.
DETERMINE ACCOUNTABILITY
Accountability, on the other hand, refers to the measure of remedies
that should be addressed to those who exhibited involvement in the
enforced disappearance without bringing the level of their complicity to
the level of responsibility defined above; or who are imputed with
knowledge relating to the enforced disappearance and who carry the
burden of disclosure; or those who carry, but have failed to discharge,
the burden of extraordinary diligence in the investigation of the
enforced disappearance.
WHO MAY FILE
1. By the aggrieved party;
2. or by any qualified person or entity in the following order:
a. immediate family, namely: the spouse, children and parents of the
aggrieved party;
b. ascendant, descendant or collateral relative of the aggrieved party
within the 4th civil degree of consanguinity or affinity, in default of those
mentioned in the preceding paragraph; or
c. any concerned citizen, organization, association or institution, if there
is no known member of the immediate family or relative of the aggrieved
party.
WHERE TO FILE
1. RTC of the place where the threat, act or omission was committed
or any of its elements occurred;
2. Sandiganbayan;
3. Court of Appeals;
4. Supreme Court, or any justice of SB, CA, SC

The writ shall be enforceable anywhere in the Philippines.

CONTENTS OF VERIFIED PETITION
1. The personal circumstances of the petitioner;
2. The name and personal circumstances of the respondent responsible for the
threat, act or omission, or, if unknown by assumed appellation;
3. The right to life, liberty and security of the aggrieved party violated or threatened
with violation by an unlawful act or omission of the respondent, and how such threat
or violation is committed with the attendant circumstances detailed in supporting
affidavits;
4. The investigation conducted, investigating authority, manner and conduct of the
investigation, together with any report;
5. The actions and recourses taken by the petitioner to determine the fate or
whereabouts of the aggrieved party and the identity of the person responsible for
the threat, act or omission; and
6. The relief prayed for.
The petition may include a general prayer for other just and equitable reliefs
WRIT OF AMPARO-NOT TO PROTECT
PROPRETY OR COMMERCIAL CONCERNS
TAPUZ VS . DEL ROSARIO-

. What it is not, is a writ to protect concerns that are purely property or

commercial. Neither is it a writ that we shall issue on amorphous and uncertain grounds .

property issues rooted to questions of physical possession of the property disputed by the private
parties.
issues relating to the right to life or to liberty- hardly discernable- past violence
Right to security- implied from the presence of armed men bare to the waist and the alleged pointing
and firing of weapons.
Threat to the rights to life, liberty and security of the petitioners is NOT imminent or
continuing.
-WA- not substitute for appeal

Petition Issuance of writ return

Verified and Immediately Within 72

signed filed if on its face hrs from
with RTC, ought to service
CA, SB or issue Plea of facts
SC Prima facie
evidence
Summary Interim relief Judgment
hearing

Or TPO Appealable
preliminary Inspection to SC R45
conference Order within 5
Production working days
Order from notice
Witness
Protection