BY EVANGELINE DE VERA

THE family of missing activist Jonas Burgos yesterday won the first round in the habeas corpus case that his mother filed before the Court of Appeals against President Arroyo and officials of the Armed Forces.

In a seven-page decision penned by Associate Justice Rosalinda Asuncion-Vicente, the CA Seventh Division affirmed its order for the military to produce an investigation report of Col. Arthur Abadilla, AFP provost marshal, which the family says may have a link to the disappearance of Burgos.

The appellate court dismissed for lack of merit the motion filed by the Office of the Solicitor General on behalf of government seeking to quash the subpoena duces tecum and ad testificandum on Abadilla’s report.

The CA said it found no justifiable reason to quash the subpoena, adding the motion to quash has become moot and academic as Abadilla has already appeared and testified in court, except for his reservation that he could not submit the investigation report without clearance from his superior.

"Respondents failed to show how the disclosure of the matters contained in the Provost Marshal’s report would lead to such undesirable results. If any, the disclosure of the contents of the investigation report might show the involvement of AFP officers and personnel in the purported loss of the subject plate number and the disclosure that might cause embarrassment to the persons involved in the investigation," the CA ruled.

Abadilla has said that his report was irrelevant to Burgos’ disappearance because it was about the administrative liability of officers of the 56th Infantry Battalion for the loss of license plates TAB-194 in their custody. The plates were originally attached to an XLT jeep impounded at the 56th IB headquarters in Norzagaray, Bulacan since June last year. The plates were seen on a maroon Toyota Revo used by unidentified men who snatched Burgos from a restaurant at the Ever Gotesco mall in Quezon City on April 28.

The military has said the plates could have been stolen.

The CA said Abadilla’s report "would definitely shed light" on how the license plates ended up in the vehicle used in the abduction.

Dr. Edita Burgos said the CA decision is a major victory, but raised the possibility of other blocks before the report is released to the court.

The appeals court likewise junked the submission of Acting Solicitor General Amparo Tang that the subpoena was oppressive and unreasonable based on the alleged confidential nature of the report.

The OSG has said the release of the report would subject the provost marshal to possible administrative and criminal liability as the document is covered a 1964 memorandum circular which prohibits the disclosure of certain information or material that would be prejudicial to the interest or prestige of the nation or any government activity, or would cause administrative embarrassment or unwarranted injury to an individual or would be of advantage to a foreign nation.

"This Court is not ready to order the quashing of the subpoena merely because it would cause embarrassment to those AFP officers or personnel who made it possible for the abductors to possess and utilize the subject plate number in Burgos’ abduction. His liberty, or maybe even his life, which is at stake in the present petition for habeas corpus, takes primordial importance over those reasons being raised by respondents," the CA said.

Abadilla has told the court he no longer has control over the report because he has submitted it to AFP chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr.

The CA has ordered Abadilla to secure permission from Esperon to present the document before the court and to testify on its contents. The order was opposed by the OSG.