15 - Manalo-vs-Calderon
15 - Manalo-vs-Calderon
FACTS:
Issues
1. Should the Court dismiss the petition on the sole ground of mootness, the
assailed orders having been recalled?
2. Are Petitioners unlawfully detained or restrained of their liberty under
their restrictive custody status?
Ruling
Elsewise stated, police officers are not similarly situated with ordinary civil
service employees. The PNP has its own administrative disciplinary mechanism
different from those of other government employees.
In sum, petitioners are unable to discharge their burden of showing that they
are entitled to the issuance of the writ prayed for. The petition fails to show on its
face that they are unlawfully deprived of their liberties guaranteed and enshrined in
the Constitution. No unlawful restraint is foisted on them by the PNP authorities
under the questioned memoranda.
The ultimate purpose of the writ of habeas corpus is to relieve a person from
unlawful restraint. The writ cannot and will not issue absent a showing that
petitioners are deprived of their liberty. Neither can it relieve petitioners, who are
police officers, from the valid exercise of prescribed discipline over them by the
PNP leadership.