This paper believes that redress for acts committed by private individuals is important and the victims of private crimes must never be denied redress. It is possible, however, that the inclusion of ‘private crimes’ may result in a deluge of amparo cases [similar to what happened in Argentina or Chile] that will clog the amparo courts to the detriment of victims who need the writ to avail of justice for their dead. It is also possible that the AFP will “ride” on this expansion and abuse the writ’s expanded scope by filing baseless amparo petitions against phantom suspects in order to derail the amparo process and render it ineffective. Hopefully, the Supreme Court will preempt any attempt to abuse the writ by the suspects themselves and find ways to screen out petitions of such nature.

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