Thursday, November 13, 2008 SC yet to act on dela Paz’s plea vs arrest order
THE Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday deferred action on the petition filed by former police comptroller Eliseo dela Paz seeking to restrain the Senate from arresting him for snubbing the summons to attend a probe on the so-called “euro generals.”
In a resolution, the SC removed all legal impediments for the Senate to implement the arrest order it issued on dela Paz for his failure to appear during the hearing called by the Senate foreign relations committee, which is investigating their detention at the airport in Russia for possession of undeclared 105,000 euros (of P6.9-million).
The high court, instead, ordered the respondents Senate committee on foreign relations and Senate sergeant-at-arms Jose Balajadia Jr. to comment on dela Paz’s petition for a temporary restraining order (TRO) within 10 days.
Once the comment is submitted, it will be included in the agenda as the court is no longer in recess.
Court spokesman Jose Midas Marquez said that no TRO was issued by the SC because the magistrates are not satisfied with the allegations raised in the petition that would warrant the issuance of such an order.
Marquez said that non-issuance of the TRO does not necessarily moot the petition of the dela Paz couple as the SC may still decide to issue one any time it deems appropriate, unless the retired general already appeared to testify before the Senate committee.
“If the Court believes there is sufficient basis to issue a TRO or a status quo order, the Court can do that. It is not prohibited from doing that,” he said.
Dela Paz is joined in his petition by his wife Maria Fe. However, only the retired general was covered by the warrant of arrest.
Dela Paz was part of the eight-man delegation that attended the 77th General Assembly Session of International Criminal Police Organization in St. Petersburg, Russia from October 6-11.
On October 9, while the group was already at the departure area of the Moscow International Airport, petitioners were briefly held for questioning by Russian authorities regarding undeclared foreign currencies they were carrying which reportedly exceeded the currency limit of US$10,000.
In their petition, the dela Paz couple asked the high court to quash the subpoena issued by the Senate foreign relations committee, chaired by Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago, and prohibit it from further conducting hearings on the matter and the Senate sergeant-at-arms from enforcing the arrest warrant.
Dela Paz said the respondent committee gravely abused it discretion when it insisted on proceeding with the hearing despite the fact that its own rules show that it is devoid of any jurisdiction to hear matters that do not involve state-to-state relations.
Citing Rule X, Section 13 (12) of Senate Rules of Procedure, dela Paz said only matters that concern “relations of the Philippines with other nations,” or “state-to-state” relations, fall within the jurisdiction of the respondent committee.
He insisted that the state of the Philippines’ foreign relations with Russia was never an issue or a concern in the inquiry, thus the committee has no jurisdiction to conduct any legislative inquiry on the subject, more so issue a subpoena.
He further said that ordinary day-to-day occurrences which do not involve the relations of the Philippines with other countries do not, and should not, fall within the jurisdiction of the committee.
“This particular case, which merely involves an infraction of a local law committed by a Filipino citizen abroad, does not fall within the ambit of the phrase ‘state-to-state’ relations…. It would appear from all indications that the incident in Moscow will not disrupt or even alter the present state of foreign relations that the Philippines has with Russia,” dela Paz said through lawyer Noel Malaya.
Assuming that the committee has jurisdiction, dela Paz said the arrest warrant was issued in contravention of internal rules of the Senate, which require the signatures of the majority of all the members of the committee.
The retired police comptroller cited the SC’s March 25 ruling in Neri vs Senate stating that “the needed vote is a majority of all members of the committee.”
Stating that the assailed order for their arrest was issued only by Santiago as chairperson of the committee, “thus, there is a cloud of doubt as to the validity of the order given in open session last October 23 ordering the arrest of petitioners.”
He further said that the arrest order was void for failure of the 14th Congress to publish its rules in its official gazette or newspaper of general circulation to comply with the due process requirement. (ECV/Sunnex)
