The camp of former president and Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on Wednesday welcomed the Supreme Court decision declaring as unconstitutional former Justice secretary and Senator Leila de Lima’s Circular 41.
“It was clear from the very start that Secretary De Lima had no legal basis to issue a hold departure order against the former president,” Arroyo’s counsel, lawyer Laurence Arroyo said in a statement.
Arroyo’s lawyer said the SC ruling on De Lima’s travel order which she used in 2011 to bar the former president from leaving the country to seek treatment for her hypoparathyroidism and metabolic bone disorder while electoral sabotage charges against her were pending—was not surprising.
De Lima’s order had barred the then-wheelchair-bound Arroyo and her husband, Jose Miguel Arroyo, from flying to Hong Kong supposedly to seek medical treatment and defied a temporary restraining order issued by the Supreme Court, which earlier allowed Arroyo to leave the country.
Three days later, Arroyo and former Commission on Elections chairman Benjamin Abalos were indicted and ordered arrested for electoral sabotage. They were both acquitted for the charge in 2015.
“It is, therefore, not at all surprising that a unanimous Supreme Court, sitting en banc, has struck the HDO down for being unconstitutional,” Arroyo’s lawyer said.
The SC also stressed that there “was no legal basis” for the issuance of the circular, which was ironically signed by Arroyo’s appointee, then Justice secretary Alberto Agra, on June 7, 2010.
In a media briefing in Baguio City, SC spokesperson Theodore Te said the SC magistrates ruled that no law had been enacted “authorizing the secretary of justice to issue hold departure orders, watch list orders or allow departure orders.”
Meanwhile, Arroyo’s lawyer said De Lima issued the travel order even if it was illegal merely to please the past administration while at the same time persecute its perceived political allies.
“She [De Lima] issued a patently invalid order to please an administration that was irrationally hostile against the former president. Hers was an act unworthy of the office of Secretary of Justice,” he said.
The Court said the Justice secretary has no authority under the law to stop any respondents or accused in criminal cases from leaving the country with pending charges.
Only the trial courts can issue a hold departure order, the justices added.
In response, the DoJ said it would abide by the decision of the Supreme Court.
“We respect the decision of the Supreme Court on this sensitive issue,” said newly appointed Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra in a text message.
But at the same time, Guevarra admitted that “there are law enforcement issues that we need to address” following the decision rendered by the tribunal.
The DoJ chief said he would confer with Solicitor General Jose Calida if they would seek for a reconsideration of the SC ruling.
Guevarra added that he would also discuss the matter with the Bureau of Immigration, an attached agency of the DoJ, to determine the effect of the SC ruling.