Mike A urges SC to junk gov't appeal on GMA TRO

MANILA, Philippines - Former first gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo asked the Supreme Court (SC) yesterday to dismiss the government’s appeal of its ruling last November affirming the immediate implementation of its order allowing his wife, former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, to seek treatment abroad for a rare disease in her cervical spine amid poll fraud charges against her.

In a 14-page opposition, petitioner instead asked the high court to cite in contempt Justice Secretary Leila de Lima and other officials for defying the temporary restraining order (TRO) enjoining the implementation of watchlist order against Mrs. Arroyo, now a Pampanga representative.

“The TRO is ‘immediately executory.’ The public respondents have chosen to disobey it. They cannot find succor in hairsplitting technicalities or by egregiously stating that the Court was wrong. There is a term for what they did: contempt. For that, the public respondents must be punished,” he said.

Arroyo said the Department of Justice (DOJ) should be punished for banking their action on the dissenting opinion of Associate Justice Lourdes Sereno in defying the TRO.

He even alleged that Sereno’s dissent was “written in a manner at war with the confidential character of Supreme Court deliberations – as pointed out by her brethren in the Court.”

Arroyo’s lawyer Ferdinand Topacio argued that “in making the TRO immediately executory, the majority (of the SC) was only exhibiting fealty to the raison d’etre (reason for existence) of vesting the courts with TRO powers; it gave flesh to the spirit that giveth life.”

He said there was “nothing irregular” about the high tribunal’s immediate issuance of the TRO, pointing out that “on almost identical set of facts... sometime in 23 August 2011, (the SC), upon a majority vote, a TRO was also granted in favor of the (former first gentleman) who was previously placed on the DOJ’s watchlist order dated 04 August 2011.”

He added that “what was totally unexpected was that Mr. Justice (Antonio) Carpio and Madame Justice Sereno would dissent in the present case when no such dissent was expressed in the previous case.”

Arroyo’s camp filed the pleading in response to the Motion for Reconsideration (MR) filed last Dec. 21 by the Office of the Solicitor-General, on behalf of De Lima and other respondents in the case involving the constitutionality of DOJ Circular No. 41, which authorizes the DOJ to issue watchlist and hold departure orders against individuals.

The DOJ is asking the SC to reverse its earlier ruling saying that the TRO was in full force and effect and that De Lima should have allowed the former president to leave the country.

The issuance of a TRO on Nov. 15 last year was the subject of one of the Articles of Impeachment against Chief Justice Renato Corona.

Last week, De Lima testified on the circumstances surrounding the alleged “hasty” issuance of TRO based on the dissent of Sereno, which testimony was declared “hearsay” by Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile but allowed to remain on record at the Senate impeachment ocurt.

In a vote of 8-5, the high court issued last Nov. 15 a TRO enjoining the DOJ from implementing the WLO against Rep. Arroyo. The Arroyo couple tried to leave the country on that same day but was prevented from boarding her flight to Hong Kong by Immigration officials upon orders of De Lima, who argued that the TRO was not immediately executory due to government’s appeal.

The government stood firm in its argument that the DOJ has authority to issue the WLO even if the case was still under preliminary investigation. 

De Lima has consistently invoked national interest in preventing the former leader’s flight in order to put closure to anomalies that hounded Arroyo’s nine-year term.

Last Nov. 17, the SC affirmed its TRO and denied the motion for reconsideration of the DOJ. It also issued a show cause order requiring De Lima to explain in 10 days why she should not be cited in contempt for defying the TRO.

Rep. Arroyo, however, was still barred from leaving the country after a Pasay City regional trial court ordered her arrest hours after the Commission on Elections filed a case for electoral sabotage against her in connection with alleged cheating in Maguindanao during the 2007 polls.

Arroyo was charged primarily based on the testimony of former provincial administrator Norie Unas, who claimed he had heard the former president instruct the Ampatuans to ensure 12-0 victory of Team Unity in his province during an event in the Palace days before the 2007 polls.