TO further address the "chilling" rise in the incidents of extrajudicial killings and involuntary disappearances, the Supreme Court yesterday said it is studying the issuances of the writ of habeas data to uphold the people’s "right to truth."

Chief Justice Reynato Puno said the writ of habeas data will be effective alongside the enforcement of the still to be implemented writ of amparo, which will deny authorities the defense of simple denial when they are sued to produce before the courts the bodies of victims of involuntary disappearances (writ of habeas corpus).

The use of the writ of habeas data, he said, has been proven effective in solving problems of enforced disappearances in Latin American countries like Brazil, Colombia, Paraguay, Peru, Argentina and Ecuador.

The writ can also be used by any citizen against any governmental agency to find out what information is being held about his or her person.

"This is the right to know what types of data about an individual are stored on manual and automatic databases, and it demands that there must be transparency on the gathering and processing of such data," Puno said.

"The exercise of the right to truth will expose all the falsehoods, all the fabrications that public authorities and private persons usually put up to evade responsibility in cases of extralegal killings and involuntary disappearances," Puno said in a speech at the Siliman University in Dumaguete City.

Last July, the tribunal held a two-day National Consultative Summit on Extrajudicial Killings and Enforced Disappearances where various recommendations were made to address the problem.

Among the recommendations was the adoption of writ of amparo, which is now being implemented in Latin American countries, to protect the constitutional rights of the people from abuses.

At present, relatives of victims of forced disappearances can avail only of the writ of habeas corpus as a legal remedy to compel authorities to present before the court the victims. – Evangeline de Vera