Constitutional crisis here –Joker

THE presidency has “declared war” on the judiciary.

This was how human rights advocate, Sen.Joker Arroyo described the drama Tuesday night at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport when immigration officials, upon orders of Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, defied the order of the Supreme Court to allow former President now Rep.Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to leave the country to seek medical treatment abroad.

“What happened last (Tuesday) night was a declaration of war of the President (Benigno Aquino III), I mean the Executive branch against the Supreme Court, which is a co-equal body. Imagine the presidency and the Supreme Court fighting each other. That is very bad for the country,” the senator said.

“It’s unfortunate because we cannot allow this thing to happen – the two departments of government quarrelling,” Arroyo said. Asked who must act as “referee”to resolve the issue, he said: “No one can step in because they’re co- equal. That is why it’s a crisis because no one wants to give in. The Supreme Court will not (give in).”

He said that the Bureau of Immigration has no business following an “illegal” order. “You can imagine, when was that announced? About 2:30 p.m. The DoJ knew it (already) that is why they alerted already the BI and made a request to the DoTC (Department of Transportation and Communications) which has the jurisdiction over the airport to block the departure of the Arroyo couple,” the senator said.

“So, they knew it. So what is this false claim, hypocritical claim that they don’t know anything about it? That’s why unless, until they are served with a copy, they are not bound. Any sensible lawyer will tell that’s a stupid position,” he said.

“This thing has never happened even during martial law. Whenever the Supreme Court renders an order they follow to the letter. Now, here’s an order in a democratic set-up, they don’t want to follow,” Arroyo said.

He noted that the budget of the Supreme Court is pending approval by the Senate. “They want to strangle it and control it. That’s an attempt also to sabotage the Supreme Court,” Arroyo said referring to the decision of the Department of Budget and Management to withhold the High Court’s budget for unfilled positions despite the judiciary’s insistence that it has fiscal autonomy. 

“Then the next one is this defiance of the TRO. That is again to undermine the Supreme Court. So, what does that mean? That is the presidency is already at war with the Supreme Court. It is now a constitutional crisis,” Arroyo said.

He added: “What more can you say when the president defies a TRO? That is a crisis because they no longer follow the Supreme Court. The Constitution says that any order of the Supreme Court is superior to that of any other official, including the president of the Philippines. That is what the Constitution is.” 

Arroyo said that De Lima’s excuse that she did not know about the TRO “will not hold.” He said: “Fact of the matter is that media knew about the TRO. Everyone else knew about it. That is what you call in law as judicial notice and the DoJ should know that – what is known publicly is enough notice.”

“What they want really is to circumvent the TRO. That cannot be. The TRO says, it is self executory. You know a TRO is immediately executory and a motion for reconsideration will not interrupt the effectivity of that one even if they file it. I think that the ones running the DoJ is professionally inept. So that’s not a good example. This is, to begin with, the presidency has declared war on the judiciary,” he said.