THE six employees of the Ilocos Norte provincial government who have been detained at the House of Representatives for almost a month have asked the Court of Appeals to resolve their habeas corpus petition immediately and declare their continued detention as illegal and a form of torture.
In a motion filed on June 23 before the CA’s Special Fourth Division, the petitioners Josephine Calajate, Encarnacion Gaor, Genedine Jambaro, Evangeline Tabulog, Pedro Agcaoili Jr. and Eden Battulayan said it was crucial for the protection of their constitutional rights for their case to be speedily resolved.
“Four weeks later, with a pending habeas corpus petition and a court order for their release, the petitioners still find themselves without any right to liberty, with no reprieve in sight and with no recourse to justice,” the petitioners said through former solicitor general Estelito Mendoza.
“The eternal and unremitting force of the habeas corpus laws is nonchalantly waylaid into oblivion by lawmakers in open defiance of the rule of law.”
The six were detained on May 29 by the House committee on good government and accountability, which is inquiring into the local government’s purchase of motor vehicles amounting to P66.45 million, which was sourced from its share of tobacco excise taxes.
The petitioners, collectively known as the Ilocos Six, said the Court of Appeals had already issued three orders to the House for the writ of habeas corpus as well as their temporary release.
On June 1, the CA issued a resolution requiring Congress to file its comment on the case. A day after, the court issued a writ of habeas corpus and ordered House of Representatives Sgt.-At-Arms Lt. Gen. Roland Detabali to produce the detained employees. On June 9, the CA issued another resolution granting the petitioners’ request for provisional release provided they posted bail of P30,000 each.
The House has ignored all three orders, a move that observers say undermines the independence of the judiciary and may lead to a constitutional crisis.
The petitioners said there was no attempt on their part to refuse to answer the questions of the lawmakers, which resulted in their detention after they were cited for contempt.
In their motion, the petitioners told the appellate court that Calajate, in particular, merely asked to be given more time to see the original documents while Gaor and Jambaro admitted not remembering the transactions in question. Tabulog told the House panel she was ‘‘not so sure’’ if she signed the documents as the logbooks and registry being referred to had already been destroyed. Agcaoili said he does not remember all the transactions as he has handled thousands of procurements, while Battulayan said she does not remember signing a voucher for the cash advance.
Isabela Rep. Rodolfo Fariñas has repeatedly threatened the six employees that they may be held in detention until June 2019 or until the lawmakers are satisfied with their answers.
Mendoza, who serves as counsel for the Ilocos Six, insisted that their continued detention was tantamount to mental torture.
“The detainees are undergoing torture, which is barred by international conventions and barred explicitly under our laws as well,” he said.
‘’We have already filed a writ of habeas corpus. That is more than enough. The writ of habeas corpus should be immediately executory.”
Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, in particular, has been vocal in rejecting the appellate court’s order, calling the CA justices ignorant of the law.
This led the CA’s Special Fourth Division to start its contempt of court proceedings against Alvarez and Detabali for disregarding its three orders.
Last week, the House committee on good government and public accountability issued a show-cause order requiring the three CA justices handling the habeas corpus case of the six Ilocos Norte officials to explain why they should not be cited for contempt for ordering their release from detention.
That prompted Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno and CA Presiding Justice Andres Reyes Jr. to express deep concern over the “implications on separation of powers and judicial independence” of the show-cause order issued by the House committee against Associate Justices Stephen Cruz, Edwin Sorongon and Nina Antonio-Valenzuela of the appellate court’s special fourth division.
“Without inquiring into the merits of the issue currently pending before the Special Fourth Division and subject to the House committee’s inquiry, we not that the House of Representatives is not without any speedy legal remedy that is consistent with the separation of powers should it disagree with the action of the Court of Appeals, such as an appeal,” they said in their comment.