MANILA. The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) has filed a petition for certiorari and a temporary restraining order to prevent a Court of Appeals (CA) order to the military submit a copy of probe report regarding the license plate linked to the abduction of missing agriculturist Jonas Burgos.

The action by AFP chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon and Col. Arthur Abadilla of the AFP Provost Marshal shows the military's determination to prevent the CA Seventh Division from obtaining a copy of the results of the military investigation.

In their petition to the high court, Esperon said the CA's order is a violation of the "principle of separation of powers".

The CA, according to the senior military officers, cannot force the military to submit the report because the Provost Marshal implemented an "exercise of exclusive executive function" when it said that the document is confidential.

Esperon said they filed the TRO because the CA gave the military until Thursday to submit the report to court during the continuation of the hearing on the case of the missing agriculturist.

The Provost Martial had earlier stated that the report was confidential and was not relevant to the hearing conducted on the Burgos case as it only tackled administrative liability regarding the missing plate from the Army's 56th Infantry Battalion.

Witnesses said the license plate TAB 194 was used by the suspects who abducted Burgos on April 28 in Quezon City.

However, the CA did not buy the military's explanation and said that it is the court who will decide on whether the documents are relevant or not.

Meanwhile, the legal counsel of the Burgos family believed that the military's filing of the petition for certiorari and TRO was the military's way to cover up their involvement in the enforced disappearance of Jonas Burgos.

"I do not expect the Supreme Court to issue a restraining order. That will not be forthcoming…Nothing will prevent him [Abadilla] from presenting the documents," said the Burgos family lawyer Ricardo Fernandez.

Fernandez said that they will ask the CA to cite Abadilla in contempt if he fails to present the report which should be included in his testimony during the continuation of the Burgos hearing tomorrow morning.

"They do not want us to know about it," he said.