• CONTINUING ASSAULT ON THE CONSTITUTION
• AND MOCKERY OF THE SUPREME COURT
• (Privilege Speech delivered by Minority Leader Edcel C. Lagman
• on 21 November 2011)

             Mr. Speaker and distinguished colleagues:

             The malevolent game plan of the Aquino administration is to defy the Supreme Court at all cost in order to fully realize its all-consuming obsession to persecute and incarcerate former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. The administration’s newly invented mantra is if the Executive can implement the law, it has likewise the option not to implement the law.

             The Aquino administration is ready to impair, and has even trampled upon, civil liberties like the constitutional right to travel, presumption of innocence and freedom from arrest except upon independent finding of probable cause by the judge after due process.

            There was only one primary purpose for the (1) defiance of the Supreme Court’s TRO allowing GMA to leave for medical treatment abroad; (2) bullet train resolution by the Joint DOJ-COMELEC Panel for the filing of the electoral sabotage case against GMA despite the pending petition in the SC challenging the constitutionality and jurisdiction of the Joint Panel; and (3) the issuance with precipitate alacrity of the warrant of arrest against GMA by the Regional Trial Court of Pasay City, and the singular purpose is to prevent GMA from exercising her constitutional right to travel and detain her in the country, albeit arbitrarily and illegally.

           We should not forget that adjudications of the Supreme Court and all inferior courts must be based on real facts and legal verities, and not on imagined fears and partisan speculations.

           In the case of the right to travel of the former President, the real facts are: (a) at the time she was barred from travelling on the night of November 15, 2011, there were no pending cases filed against her in any court of law; (b) there is no hold departure order (HDO) issued against her by any competent court; and (c) former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is suffering from a rare ailment necessitating her treatment abroad.

            The legal verities are:  (a) the liberty to travel is guaranteed under the Bill of Rights; (b) the right to travel cannot be impaired except in the interest of national security, public safety or public health as provided by law, not one of which obtains relative to the projected travel of the former President, even as the Congress has not yet enacted the implementing law pursuant to the directive of the Constitution; (c) the watchlist orders issued by Justice Secretary Leila De Lima are not equivalent to an HDO; (d) the Supreme Court has issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) upholding GMA’s right to travel and restraining the enforcement of the DOJ Circular No. 41 and the WLOs issued by Secretary De Lima; and (e) the Supreme Court has junked the Government’s motion for reconsideration even as it is entrenched in our jurisprudence that a motion for reconsideration cannot stay a TRO.

            These factual and legal realities cannot be overlooked or supplanted by the Aquino administration’s mere imagined fears and baseless speculations that the former President is a flight risk and would seek political asylum abroad. There is no single credible and competent evidence presented by the Aquino administration to substantiate its fears and speculations.

            The propensity of this arbitrary and despotic agenda feeds on two perceptions: (1) the former President is unpopular so much so that the bastardization of her rights will not incense the people and may even get popular approval; and (2) the uniformed forces – the military and the police – are supportive of the administration.

            The foregoing constitutes feeble anchorage for supplanting the Constitution and the rule of law.

            The issue of justice, fair play and constitutionality are not to be determined by opinion polls or the public pulse. These are justiciable issues for adjudication by the judicial forum, more particularly the Supreme Court.

            Moreover, it is a condescending assault on the people’s ultimate judgment on arrogance of power, which is no different from a cacique’s insulting the intelligence of his unlettered tenant.

            History is replete with the people’s mass protests and resolve against rulers who have bludgeoned the rule of law. The EDSA People Power Revolution is not too distant as to be forgotten.

            The military and police officials and men are sworn to uphold the supremacy of the Constitution. While the President is Commander-in-Chief, he detaches himself from the chain of command when he impairs the Constitution. An unlawful order or unconstitutional command is not a mandate to be followed.

            Again, history is replete with heads of State cast in isolation and oblivion for flaunting the Constitution and denigrating the rule of law.

            I beseech the distinguished Members of this Chamber to shed off their partisan loyalties and uphold fealty to the Constitution and support the Supreme Court as the final arbiter of justiciable issues.

            I defer to the High Tribunal the resolution of the legal and constitutional issues on the raging controversy. And I earnestly hope that once the Supreme Court has ruled, the political departments would obey and follow its ruling.

            Thank you, Mr. Speaker and distinguished colleagues.