SC pressed to protect people’s rights, freedoms
SC pressed to protect people’s rights, freedoms
By Satur Ocampo
Amid the national outrage and international concern raised over the March 7 “Bloody Sunday” killing of nine activists in the Southern Tagalog region, urgent calls are being addressed to the Supreme Court to do what it can, while it can, to protect the people’s constitutional rights.
And there’s a very strong basis for seeking the tribunal’s action: the 1987 Constitution expressly mandates and empowers it to “promulgate rules concerning the protection and enforcement of constitutional rights,” set forth in Article VII, Section 5 (5) of the Charter.
Retired SC Justice Antonio Carpio last Thursday discussed this important but not often-cited constitutional provision in his Inquirer column, titled “The gods of Padre Faura.” He emphasized that the Charter’s framers have explained that “this novel provision is both a duty and a power, imposing on the Supreme Court the responsibility as the ultimate guardian of the constitutional rights of the people.”
He wrote: “The fact that the search warrants were served by police and military personnel, who are under the Executive branch of the government, does not excuse the Supreme Court from investigating the killings, which happened while judicial warrants were being served.”
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