SC upholds dismissal of De Lima's habeas data plea vs Duterte over his remarks
MANILA, Philippines — The Supreme Court has denied with finality Sen. Leila De Lima’s petition for a writ of habeas data against President Rodrigo Duterte over the chief executive’s sources of information on his verbal attacks against her.
The SC en banc issued a resolution dated November 3 junking De Lima’s motion for reconsideration to reverse the tribunal’s October 2019 ruling that also dismissed the senator’s plea. Associate Justices Marvic Leonen and Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa dissented from the majority vote.
“The basic issues raised therein have been passed upon by this Court and no substantial arguments were presented to warrant the reversal of the questioned Resolution,” the en banc notice made public recently read.
De Lima had sought relief from the SC to compel Duterte to give her access to information collected in the allegations thrown by the government against her. She specifically cited statements from the president saying he “will have to destroy her in public” and calling her an “immoral woman” with “a very sordid personal and official life.”
In October 2019, the SC voted unanimously to dismiss De Lima’s petition, citing Duterte’s immunity from suit as the incumbent president, which the senator had assailed in her motion for reconsideration filed January 2020.
The senator, in her appeal, asserted that er case presents a “novel issue of transcendental importance” as it questions acts of a president “that are clearly and obviously outside the scope of official conduct.”
She said that the dismissal of her plea has also “inoculated the President from accountability for egregious conduct, and placed an insurmountable barrier to the search for truth and the vindication of basic rights.”
Leonen’s vote
In October 2019, Leonen voted to dismiss De Lima’s petition in October 2019, but he explained in his separate concurring opinion that he concurs with the dismissal of the petition “without prejudice to the filing of the proper case against the proper officials.”
He held then that petitions for a writ of amparo or habeas data may still be filed against a president’s official acts, “as long as the executive secretary, or the relevant officers, are named as party respondents.”
In deciding on De Lima’s appeal, Leonen became a dissenter as he reiterated that “the President is not immune from a meritorious suit involving the issuance of extraordinary writs.” Caguioa had also joined in Leonen's dissent in the November 2020 vote.
He pointed out that a president is cloaked with immunity during incumbency to prevent them from being distracted in enacting duties as chief executive.
A petition for the issuance of a writ of habeas data against a president will not cause such distraction, as he or she need not appear to courts as he may be represented by the solicitor general. Data that may be ordered to be produced may be released by staff of the president too, Leonen said.
The justice went on: “With all due respect, this Court’s October 15, 2019 Resolution, and the summary denial of this Motion for Reconsideration, blatantly provides a double standard in the guise of ‘presidential immunity.’ In issuing humiliating, insulting, and misogynistic remarks at public forums in his official capacity as the President, it is President Duterte himself who degrades the dignity of his own Office.”
Leonen said the subject of Duterte’s vile remarks were not allowed “succor” and seeking remedy will be seen by the SC as a “vexatious and distracting harassment suit that the Office of the President should not have to endure.”
The justice added that the SC must not give the impression that presidents are untouchable.
Leonen said that the summary dismissal of De Lima’s petition on the ground of presidential immunity and without a mean for rapid redress sets a dangerous precedent that must be overturned.
De Lima has been detained at the police headquarters in Quezon City due to the government’s drug charges against her. She is accused of having a hand in the proliferation of drug trade inside the national penitentiary during her stint as justice secretary, an accusation she has denied.
De Lima earlier accused the government of using public resources to pin her down.
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