Amparo and Habeas Data in The Philippines - Writs of Amparo and Habeas Data

Writs of Amparo and Habeas Data

On August 17, 2007 Puno said that the writ of amparo, would bar the military plea of denial (at a speech at the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption's 9th anniversary, Camp Crame). Under the writ, plaintiffs or victims will have the right of access to information on their lawsuits—a constitutional right called the "habeas data" derived from constitutions of Latin America. The final draft of these twin writs (retroactive) will be promulgated on October. Puno tersely summed the writs "In other words, if you have this right, it would be very, very difficult for State agents, State authorities to be able to escape from their culpability."

Puno stated that with the writ of Habeas corpus, the writs of Habeas Data and writ of amparo will further assist "those looking for missing loved ones". On August 30, 2007, Puno (speech at Silliman University in Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental) promised to institute the writ of habeas data (“you should have the idea” or “you should have the data”). Puno explained that amparo bars alibi, while Habeas Data "can find out what information is held by the officer, rectify or even the destroy erroneous data gathered". Brazil used the writ, followed by Colombia, Paraguay, Peru, Argentina and Ecuador.

The Philippine 1987 Constitution was derived from the 1973 Ferdinand Marcos Constitution, it's 1981 amendment, from the 1935 constitution, and from the United States Constitution. The United States Constitution was adopted in its original form on September 17, 1787, by the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and later ratified by conventions in each state in the name of "the People." The U.S. Constitution is the oldest written national constitution except possibly for San Marino 's Statutes of 1600, whose status as a true constitution is disputed by scholars. The Writ of Amparo is a remedy to enforce fundamental rights. “among the different procedures that have been established for the protection of human rights, the primary ones that provide direct and immediate protection are habeas corpus and amparo. The difference between these two writs is that habeas corpus is designed to enforce the right to freedom of the person, whereas amparo is designed to protect those other fundamental human rights enshrined in the Constitution but not covered by the writ of habeas corpus.”

The literal translation from Latin of Habeas Data is “you should have the data”. Habeas Data is a constitutional right to protect, per lawsuit filed in court, to protect the image, privacy, honour, information self-determination and freedom of information of a person. Habeas Data can used to discover what information is held about his or her person (via rectification or destruction of the personal data held. Habeas Data originated, inter alia, from the Council of Europe’s 108th Convention on Data Protection of 1981 (aimed at protecting the privacy of the individual regarding the automated processing of personal data; with right to access their personal data held in an automated database.