THE Supreme Court on Tuesday scrapped an eight-year-old circular issued by then Justice secretary and now Senator Leila de Lima granting herself the authority to prevent the flight of suspects facing criminal charges.
At their en banc session in Baguio City, the justices voted unanimously to declare as unconstitutional De Lima’s Circular No. 41, which she used in 2011 to bar former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo from leaving the country to seek treatment for her hypoparathyroidism and metabolic bone disorder while electoral sabotage charges against her were pending.
The Court argued that 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.
“The Court, in interpreting Article III, Section 6, determined that there was no legal basis for the Department Circular No. 41 because of the absence of a law authorizing the Secretary of Justice to issue hold departure orders, watch list orders or allow departure orders,” SC spokesman Theodore Te said in a press conference in Baguio.
As Justice secretary, De Lima used the same order against Arroyo’s husband, Jose Miguel Arroyo, and former Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. chairman Epharim Genuino, barring them from leaving the country.
The Court held that the circular and all succeeding watchlist orders based upon it violated the subjects’ constitutional right to travel.
“The liberty of abode and of changing the same within the limits prescribed by law shall not be impaired except upon lawful order of the court. Neither shall the right to travel be impaired except in the interest of national security, public safety, or public health, as may be provided by law,” the law statex.
In 2011, the Supreme Court issued a temporary restraining order on the implementation of Circular No. 41 upon the petition of Mrs. Arroyo.
Shortly afterward, Arroyo, who was in a wheelchair, arrived at the airport carrying the order from the Supreme Court.
But De Lima issued a watchlist order against her after her department indicted her in an electoral sabotage case, for which she was later cleared.
The former DoJ chief also instructed the immigration officials to block Arroyo, who was bound for Singapore for medical treatment, an order that defied the Supreme Court.
A complaint for disbarment was later on filed by lawyer Ricardo Rivera against De Lima for her refusal to obey the SC’s TRO on the travel ban she imposed against the Arroyos.
The complaint, which disqualified De Lima from her application to the chief justice post in 2012, cited Section 27, Rule 138 of the Rules of Court and accused her of “deceit, malpractice or other gross misconduct in such office, grossly immoral conduct or by reason of his conviction of a crime involving moral turpitude, or for a willful disobedience of any lawful order of a superior court.”