AN OFFICIAL has asked the Supreme Court to dismiss the petition filed by Senator Leila de Lima last month challenging President Rodrigo Duterte’s immunity from suits.
Solicitor General Jose Calida invoked the absolute immunity from suit enjoyed by the President during his tenure in office.
He says the President’s immunity is a ‘‘well-entrenched doctrine,’’ and that Duterte may not be held accountable during his six-year term to the charges claimed by De Lima.
Calida disputes De Lima’s argument that the issue on immunity touches on the merits of the case and that resolving it would be premature.
He earlier asked why the high court decided not to require Duterte to comment on De Lima’s petition and instead opted to settle first the issue on the applicability of the President’s immunity from suits on the case.
De Lima argues that the President should be required to answer her petition.
But Calida agreed with the high court’s action and stressed that there was no need to require the President to even comment on the petition because his immunity from suits was automatic.
“Presidential immunity automatically attaches to the President by virtue of his office and there is no need to invoke it for its existence,” Calida said.
Citing previous cases, Calida claims that the high court has automatically dropped the sitting President from list of respondents in cases where he or she had been impleaded, and as a matter of doctrine and practice.
Calida cited a petition last May challenging the last appointments made by then outgoing President Benigno Aquino III in the judiciary where the high court dropped him as a respondent but kept then Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa as respondent for the Office of the President.
Calida also rejected De Lima’s argument that the President’s personal attacks against her were beyond his official functions and therefore should not be covered by immunity.
“The rationale for presidential immunity is that the President must be free from any hindrance or distraction in the exercise of his duties and functions,” Calida said.
He also invoked the doctrine of separation of powers which, he says, precludes the high court from proceeding to act on De Lima’s petition.
“This honorable court is bound by judicial precedents in applying the well-established doctrine of absolute immunity from suit by the President,” Calida said.