HABEAS CORPUS

1. Ex wife filed with the RTC for petition for guardianship over the person and property of her
ex husband (separated) due to the latter’s advanced age frail health, poor eyesight and
impaired judgment (latter moved out from their house in Antipolo to Makati)

 Marital rights including coverture and living in conjugal dwelling may not be enforced by
the extraordinary writ of habeas corpus.
 A writ of habeas corpus extends to all cases of illegal confinement or detention, or by
which the rightful custody of a person is withheld from one entitled thereto. It is
available where:
(1) A person continues to be unlawfully denied of one or more of his constitutional
freedoms;
(2) Denied of due process;
(3) Restrained involuntarily and unnecessarily
(4) Deprivation of freedom originally valid has become arbitrary
(5) Illegal restraint of liberty must be actual and effective, not merely nominal or moral.

 To justify the grant of petition, the restraint of liberty must be an illegal and
involuntary deprivation of freedom of action. The illegal restrain of liberty must be
actual and effective, not merely nominal or moral.

2. Erap’s lawyer filed for petition for issuance of writ of habeas corpus on the ground of delay in
the hearing of a petition for bail.
 Habeas corpus does not lie where the person alleged to be restrained of his liberty is in
the custody of an officer under process issued by a court which had jurisdiction to issue
the same.

3. PGMA issued Proclamation No. 38 to suppress state of rebellion. Lacson, et.al. filed for
petition for habeas corpus on the ground that they are under imminent dange of being
arrested.
 The application for issuance of a writ of habeas corpus is not proper since its purpose is
to relieve petitioners from unlawful restraint, a matter which remains speculative up to
the time the petition was filed.

4. PO1 Ampatuan was identified as perpetrator of the killing of Head of the COMELEC.
Ampatuan was then placed under restrictive custody.

 Ampatuan cannot be released/petition for issuance of writ of habeas corpus cannot be

granted. The Court has held that restrictive custody is not a form of illegal detention. It
is, at best, a nominal restraint which is beyond the ambit of habeas corpus.
5. Barredo – convicted for carnapping and illegal possession of firearms. Jailed in 1993.
Convicted. Transferred to Bilibid on 1994. On 2004, he claimed that he already served a total of
18 years. Is he entitled to the writ of habeas corpus?

NO. A person in custody of an officer under process issued by a court or judge or by virtue of a
judgment or order of a court record, the writ of habeas corpus is now allowed. He was detained
pursuant to a final judgment of the RTC, convicting him for the crime.

6. The filing of charges and issuance of warrant of arrest cure the defect of invalid detention.
Moreover, the absence of preliminary investigation will not nullify the information and warrant
of arrest.