MANILA, Philippines ? (UPDATE) The Court of Appeals will archive the petition for a Writ of Amparo of a Filipino-American activist, who accused the military of torture, if she fails to appear at a hearing on July 24.

Both parties in the case agreed with Associate Justice Noel Tijam that the case would be archived if Melissa Roxas failed to attend next month?s hearing.

Roxas? lawyer, Rex Fernandez, said his client would be back in the country on the third week of July.

In an emotional news conference from Los Angeles on Sunday morning (Manila time), Roxas recounted the torture she suffered under a group of men whom she said were soldiers.

Roxas? lawyer in the United States, Arnedo Valera, said his client would seek damages in a US federal court against the Philippine government.

During a hearing at the CA on Roxas? petition on Monday, Doctor Geneve Reyes testified that when she examined the activist after she escaped from her captors, her physical and psychological injuries were consistent with torture.

?She has multiple abrasion and suffering from acute stress,? Reyes said of Roxas, adding, ?She cannot eat, she cannot sleep and she was crying all the time.?

Government lawyers tried to assail Roxas for crying during her Sunday press conference, saying it was part of an act and Roxas had a background in drama.

But Tijam ordered that such remark be stricken from the records and told government lawyers that their comment was irrelevant.