ILOILO CITY – A court hearing the case of two abducted activists here unexpectedly found itself looking for a ranking intelligence officer who cannot be located even by government lawyers.

Judge Narciso Aguilar, presiding judge of the Iloilo Regional Trial Court Branch 33, on Monday directed lawyers from the Office of the Solicitor General to locate Col. Marian Perez who was among those named as respondent in the Amparo petition filed by the families of activists Ma. Luisa Posa-Dominado and Nilo Arado.

Aguilar asked the OSG lawyers to help locate and serve the court summons to Perez after he failed to submit a return to the writ of Amparo issued by the court on December 17, 2008 .

Perez, former head of the Military Intelligence Group in Western Visayas , could not be located by the government lawyers and his co-respondents to the case, OSG lawyer Gerik Paderanga said.

“He is an intelligence officer and his whereabouts and work are confidential,” Paderanga said.

Aguilar said a court summons will be issued to compel Perez to reply to the Amparo writ.

Lawyers from the National Union of People's Lawyers, representing the families of the missing activists, said Perez was the only respondent who had failed to submit a return to the writ.

Reports said heavily armed men forcibly took Dominado and Arado in Barangay Cabanbanan in Oton town in Iloilo on April 12, 2007 after the victims' vehicle was waylaid. Their companion, human rights worker Jose Ely Garachico, was shot and seriously wounded but was left behind.

Arado was the regional chair of the militant Bagong Alyansang Makabayan while Dominado was the spokesperson of the Samahan nga mga Ex-Detainees Laban sa Detensyon at para sa Amnestiya in Panay when they were abducted.

The families of the victims have blamed the abduction and shooting on state and military agents but this has been repeatedly denied by military officials.

Perez is among the 10 respondents to the petition which includes President Macapagal-Aroyo.

Also named respondents were National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales, Armed Forces Chief of Staff Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr., Maj. Gen. Jovenal Narcise, commander of the Army's 3 rd Infantry Division, Maj. Jose Gany Galanza of the of the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP), Capt. Lowen Gil Marquez, chief of the AFP's 32nd Civil Relation Unit, Chief Supt. Wilfredo Dulay Sr., then Western Visayas police director, Insp. Vicente Castor Jr., and Insp. Alexander Rodrigo, police chief of Oton and Janiuay towns in Iloilo, respectively.

The OSG has filed a motion to dismiss the petition and to drop the President among the respondents citing her immunity from civil or criminal cases during her incumbency.

The OSG said the petition against the respondents are “baseless” and failed to follow procedures. It said the allegations being raised are similar to those in a petition for habeas corpus filed earlier by the victims' families.

The petition for habeas corpus was dismissed by the RTC Branch 34 presided over by Judge Ma. Yolanda Panaguiton-Gaviño because the petitioners failed to show proof that the abducted activists were under the custody of the respondents.

The lawyers of the petitioners have filed an opposition to the OSG's petition saying the respondents' reply contained “only general denials” of their involvement to the abduction but “failed to explain why the respondents did not exercise extraordinary diligence” in locating the victims and in identifying and arresting the perpetrators.*NPB

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