The Court of Appeals (CA) ordered the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police to present an indigenous rights activist and an older community organizer who had been identified as communist movement leaders.
The order follows the court's decision on Monday to give the families of Gene Roz Jamil "Bazoo" de Jesus and Dexter Capuyan, who both went missing over two months ago, a petition for a writ of habeas corpus.
A writ of habeas corpus is a judicial remedy that requires anybody who has custody of a person, including a government official or agency, to present that person in court and explain the legal reason for depriving that person of liberty.
According to the families of the missing activists, they heard via informants that De Jesus, 27, and Capuyan, 56, were abducted on April 28 in Taytay, Rizal province, by men who purportedly identified themselves as members of the PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG).
They haven't been seen or heard from since. The court noted De Jesus' sister Idda de Jesus-Tiongco's assertion that her brother was in the custody of either the military or the police because he had planned to meet Capuyan, a rebel suspect. The military claimed Capuyan was a high-ranking member of the New People's Army (NPA) with outstanding arrest warrants and a price tag of up to P2.8 million on his head.
According to the court, De Jesus' sister had a "reasonable belief.
Capuyan's relatives claimed he was in Rizal for medical treatment at the time of the alleged kidnapping, but it was unclear why he was meeting up with De Jesus.
The CIDG had strenuously denied any involvement in the disappearance of the two men.
PNP spokeswoman Police Col. Jean Fajardo said at a press conference in May that the agency "categorically denied" its participation in the case and that the PNP was "not in the habit of abducting any persons.
De Jesus worked for the Philippine Task Force on Indigenous Peoples Rights as an information officer.
Capuyan is a Bontoc-Ibaloy-Kankanaey who is well-known for assisting indigenous tribes in the Cordillera Region. He has also been designated by the military as a senior member of the NPA's Chadli Molintas Command in the Ilocos and Cordillera regions.
Both De Jesus and Capuyan attended the University of the Philippines (UP) in Baguio. De Jesus earned his bachelor's degree in communication in 2016.
In the 1980s, Capuyan was the editor-in-chief of Outcrop, UP Baguio's official student journal.
Before filing separate habeas corpus petitions in the CA on July 5, relatives of De Jesus and Capuyan visited several police stations and agencies, pleading with them to comply with the Anti-Enforced or Involuntary Disappearance Act of 2012, which requires government agencies to confirm whether they have a missing person in their custody.
The petitioners' lawyer, Marben Panlasiqui, stated that the individual petitions, which were eventually consolidated into one, were filed before the CA due to the vast territory covered by the search for the two—from the Cordillera to the Southern Tagalog region.
He further stated that the search included national AFP and PNP bases and offices.
The court directed the National Bureau of Investigation to serve its order on AFP Chief General Andres Centino and PNP Chief Gen.
Benjamin Acorda Jr., CIDG Chief Brig. Gen. Romeo Caramat, and Rizal Provincial Director of Police Col. Dominic Baccay
The authorities were given until 10 a.m. to produce and bring the bodies of the two men "if found to be in their custody.
The appellate court ruled in favor of the plaintiff on Friday, "to show cause why the subject persons should remain in their custody.
