SPEAKER Pantaleon Alvarez on Friday threatened to abolish the Court of Appeals, saying the appellate court had no authority to compel the House of Representatives to release the so-called “Ilocos Six” who are detained at the Batasan Complex over an irregularity.
“The CA is not even our co-equal branch. It is merely a creation of Congress. It exists because it was created by Congress,” Alvarez told a radio interview.
“The CA justices had better start thinking because any time, we can dissolve the CA.”
The Court of Appeals was created by Commonwealth Act 3 in December 1935.
Alvarez said Congress could enact a law that would abolish the second highest court of the land.
Similarly, Congress, having the power of the purse, could give the court a one-peso budget—and that would effectively shut it down.
Alvarez also threatened to file disbarment cases against the three justices from the court’s Special Fourth Division—Stephen Cruz, Edwin Sorongon and Nina Antonino-Valenzuela—for granting the habeas corpus petition of the six and issuing a release order allowing them to post bail.
Alvarez earlier tagged the three justices as “idiots,” “rotten,” and “crazy” for compelling the court to explain the detention of the six Ilocos Norte officials over their alleged irregular procurement of P66.45 million worth of vehicles for the provincial government.
“I think the CA justices have no jurisdiction over us,” Alvarez said.
“Who are they to dictate to Congress what to do? We have rights that have been upheld by the Supreme Court a number of times.”
Alvarez also accused the court’s justices of “gross ignorance of the law” for allowing the Ilocos Six to post bail.
“The House leadership will not honor such an order from the CA,” he said.