[3][4] On August 25, 2007, Reynato Puno declared the legal conception of amparo's twin, the supplemental Philippine Habeas Data.
Puno by judicial fiat proclaimed the legal birth of these twin peremptory writs in October 2007, as his legacy to the Filipino nation.
But other countries like Colombia, Chile, Germany and Spain, opted to limit amparo shield only to some constitutional guarantees or fundamental rights.
[18] The "recurso de amparo" is an exhaustive remedy which originated from Latin America's Mexican, Chile and Argentina legal systems, inter alia.
It is now an extraordinary legal remedy in Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay Peru, Brazil and Argentina.
Amparo in Argentina is a limited, summary, emergency procedure, and merely supplementary, requiring previous exhaustion of administrative remedies before rendition of judgment of mandamus or injunction.
[20] Historically, Philippine Habeas Corpus (from 1901 until the present) failed to provide an efficacious legal remedy to victims of extra-judicial killings and desaparecidos.
The due process for such petitions is not simply civil or criminal, because they incorporate the presumption of non-authority, so that the official who is the respondent has the burden to prove his authority to do or not do something, failing which the court has no discretion but to decide for the petitioner, who may be any person, not just an interested party.
Chief Justice Reynato Puno stated that the "National Consultative Summit on Extrajudicial Killings and Forced Disappearances: Searching for Solutions" would help stop the murders.
[26][27][28] “Extralegal killings” (UN instruments term) are those committed without due process of law, which include summary and arbitrary executions, “salvagings”, threats to take the life of journalists, inter alia.
[29] 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).
This rule empowers our courts to issue reliefs that may be granted through judicial orders of protection, production, inspection and other relief to safeguard one's life and liberty The writ of amparo shall hold public authorities, those who took their oath to defend the constitution and enforce our laws, to a high standard of official conduct and hold them accountable to our people.
The sovereign Filipino people should be assured that if their right to life and liberty is threatened or violated, they will find vindication in our courts of justice.
Reynato Puno's 49-page unanimous ponencia granted amparo relief to the Manalo brothers who were abducted by the Citizens Armed Forces Geographical Unit (CAFGU) in San Ildefonso, Bulacan, in February 2006.
[68][69][70] On September 28, 2007, the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) said the new writ of amparo and habeas data in themselves are not enough to resolve the problems of extra-legal killings and enforced disappearances in the Philippines.
It said that there must be a cooperative action on all parts of the government and civil society: The AHRC also said that protection provided by the writ of amparo does not extend to non-witnesses whose lives may also be threatened.