Philippines: Abducted and Illegally Arrested, Urban Poor Leader Asks SC for Amparo Protection

A feisty woman, who in her mid-sixties, has dissected poverty and has
listened to countless stories of women’s oppression in all its
microtones continue to seek justice.

Abducted and Illegally Arrested Senior Citizen Urban Poor Leader asks
SC for protection thru the writ of Amparo

Lourdes Rubrico, 63 years old, better known to her neighbors as “Nay
Ude”, a resident of Dasmariñas, Cavite, was abducted by military men
on April 3, 2007 as she was dozing off in one of the benches in a
shelter in Megahouse where a pabasa was held. The perpetrators were
three tall men in short-sleeved polo and armed with .45 caliber guns.

She was brought to a military camp where she experienced extreme
psychological torture and inflicted by several military officers who
did not bother to hide their identities as state authorities. It was
only on April 10, 2007 that she was finally released, albeit,
forewarned of the fatal consequence of going public about all those
eight dark days that she was outside the protection of the law and
unsettled her world and her family’s.

Yet having been accustomed to the raging struggle for human rights on
account of her involvement in progressive organizations such as the
Cavite Ecumenical Movement for Justice and Peace (CEMJP) as member of
its Board of Trustees; and Bayan Muna, as its Barangay coordinator,
Nay Ude was not, for a moment fazed by state violence that she,
herself, had experienced.

On November 13, 2007, with the support of KARAPATAN, Nay Ude filed a
Petition for the Writ of Amparo with prayers for temporary protection
order, inspection of place, and production of documents. KARAPATAN
lawyer Atty. Rex Frenandez avers that “the petitioner has exhausted
all efforts legally available and that there is no other plain,
speedy, and adequate remedy to protect the rights of the victims
except by this application for a Writ of Amparo.”

“Respondents to the Petition of the Writ of Amparo are President
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Gen.Esperon Brig. Gen Avelino Razon, Major
Darwin Sy a.k.a Darwin Reyes, Jimmy Santana, Ruben Alfaro, Captain
Angelo P. Cuaresma Police Supt. Edgar Robquero, Police Senior
Inspector Arsenio Gomez and the Office of the Ombudsman,” Atty.
Fernandez said.

KARAPATAN Secretary-General Marie Hilao-Enriquez’s hopefully declares
that “with the first successful case of the writ of amparo that
compelled the military to surface and release Ruel Muñasque, a youth
leader in Mindanao, we expect that Lourdes Rubrico’s case would prove
the writ of amparo to be true to its objectives, especially now that
it is being challenged to protect Lourdes Rubrico, an urban poor woman
leader and a senior citizen who lived through abduction, illegal
arrest and being held incommunicado. Clearly, Nay Ude’s perpetrators
took advantage of her vulnerabilities, and by no means should the
Supreme Court tolerate this reprehensible act.” ###

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