MANILA, Philippines?Acting Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera said Friday the government was prepared to answer the allegations raised by the Ampatuan family in their petition for a writ of amparo with the Court of Appeals branch in Cagayan De Oro City.

?(For) the writ of amparo, the hearing will be on December 9 and the Office of the Solicitor General will handle this and we will appear for the hearing,? said Devanadera, concurrently the solicitor-general.

The Court of Appeals issued a writ of amparo for members of the Ampatuan family against the military, the Philippine National Police and the National Bureau of Investigation.

The petition for the writ was filed by lawyers Anwar Khalid Maliawao and Rex Jasper Lopoz on behalf of Governor Zaldy Ampatuan of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and his father, Maguindanao Governor Andal Sr. on Thursday.

In their petition, Maliawao and Lopoz asked the court to order the military, the PNP and the NBI to lift restrictions on the movement of the Ampatuans, their supporters and lawyers.

They argued that their clients and the others restricted inside the houses of the Ampatuans in Shariff Aguak were being arbitrarily detained although there were no charges against them.

Beverly Sabio-Beja, assistant clerk of court, said Justice Romulo Borja of the court?s 21st Division granted the petition and penned the resolution, which was issued 10 a.m. Friday.