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Moncupa vs. Enrile

EFREN C. MONCUPA, Petitioner, vs. JUAN PONCE ENRILE, FABIAN C. VER, GALILEO KINTANAR, FERNANDO GOROSPE, AND JOSE CASTRO, Respondents.

G.R. No. L-63345 | 1986-01-30

EN BANC

D E C I S I O N 


GUTIERREZ, JR., J: 

As early as 1919, in the leading case of Villavicencio v. Lukban (39 Phil. 778, 790), this Court ruled: 

"A prime specification of an application for a writ of habeas corpus is restraint of liberty. The essential object and purpose of the writ of habeas corpus is to inquire into all manner of involuntary restraint as distinguished from voluntary, and to relieve a person therefrom if such restraint is illegal. Any restraint which will preclude freedom of action is sufficient . . ." 

This latitudinarian scope of the writ of habeas corpus has, in law, remained undiminished up to...