Group asks SC to implement ‘writ of kalayaan’

The Supreme Court (SC) has been prodded to implement the proposed “Writ of Kalayaan” as a legal remedy against “inhuman punishment” suffered by detainees inside “substandard” jails.

The appeal was aired by the Kapatid, a human rights group championing the rights of political detainees.

Kapatid expressed objection to the opposition of the Bureau of Corrections against the adoption of the “Writ of Kalayaan.”

Kapatid spokesperson Fides Lim invoked “the primordial constitutional rights to life, to health, and against cruel, degrading or inhuman punishment that are violated by substandard conditions of imprisonment.”

“Kapatid firmly urges the Supreme Court to fast-track the promulgation of the ‘Writ of Kalayaan’”,” the group said, in a statement.

The adoption of the writ was proposed in 2020 by SC Senior Associate Justice Marvic Leonen who said the writ is needed “when all the requirements to establish cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment are present.”

Under the proposed writ, there would be “a continuing order that those in charge of the custody of the persons deprived of liberty (PDLs) to comply with the court-sanctioned plan to rectify or improve the substandard or inadequate conditions of prison facilities within a reasonable time and if not met, an order will be issued for the release of the PDLs, either thru bail, recognizance or probation, following the order of precedence until the facility have been brought to a humane level.”

Among other extra-ordinary legal remedies, the judicial system now has the writs of Habeas Corpus (on illegal detention), Amparo (on other rights aside from illegal detention), Habeas Data (on privacy of communication), and Kalikasan (on environment protection).

In its position paper submitted to the Supreme Court, BuCor Director General Gregorio Pio Catapang Jr. stressed that “the problems of congestion is now being addressed by the Bureau on the basis of the passage of two laws, namely: Republic Act No. 10575, the Bureau of Corrections Act of 2013 which provides for the modernization, professionalization and restructuring of the BuCor, and RA11928 which provides for the establishment of a separate facility for PDLs convicted of