Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and Justice Secretary Leila de Lima.
AFP/Philippine Daily Inquirer File Photos
But the temporary restraining order (TRO) issued by the high court could become moot.
Philippine Daily Inquirer sources said the Commission on Elections (Comelec) might file a case of electoral fraud against Arroyo Friday.
In an informal press conference at the lobby of St. Luke’s Medical Center in Taguig City, Arroyo spokesperson Elena Bautista-Horn also said they had “received information” on the supposed plan of the joint panel of the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Comelec to file a resolution of probable cause for electoral sabotage in connection with the alleged fraud in the 2007 elections.
Latest petition
The latest petition, filed Thursday, is from Arroyo herself, who is now asking the Supreme Court to stop Justice Secretary Leila de Lima from further blocking her foreign travel. Only on Tuesday, the high court issued a TRO on the inclusion of Arroyo and her husband in the immigration watch list.
Court observers said the special session could also be a showdown between the appointees of Arroyo and of President Benigno Aquino III to the high court. In issuing the TRO favoring Arroyo, the justices voted 8-5, with three of the President’s appointees opposing the majority decision.
De Lima’s petition
Jose Midas Marquez, the high court’s administrator and spokesperson, on Thursday told reporters that the 15-member chamber would also discuss the petition filed by De Lima seeking the lifting of the TRO, which allowed Arroyo to leave for purported medical treatment abroad.
But Marquez said the decision of Chief Justice Renato Corona to call for a special en banc session was not peculiar to Arroyo’s case. “This has been done numerous times before,” he said.
The justices are also to deliberate on the request of Arroyo’s lawyer, Estelito Mendoza, to move the November 22 schedule for oral arguments on Arroyo’s case to an earlier date, and De Lima’s supposed defiance of the high court’s TRO, Marquez said.
“The court is just monitoring what is happening and the pleadings that have been filed. The court is concerned, of course, about the compliance with its order,” Marquez said. “The court will address all these pending matters.”
De Lima said the DOJ would closely monitor the court proceedings and would oppose Mendoza’s request to reset the date of the oral arguments.
“We find that objectionable because we’re already pressed for time in filing our comment to the TRO. We practically have less than three days to comply with the order of the court,” she said. “The justices will not have reasonable time to go over our comment if the oral arguments will be held earlier.”
De Lima said while the government was hoping for a favorable decision on its motion for reconsideration, “we’re preparing for the worst-case scenario, which is a denial.”
“We’re still planning in the event that that will happen. We still have other options, but we can’t decide on it yet,” she said.
De Lima foiled the former First Couple’s attempt to fly out on Tuesday night, saying the watch-list order was still in effect because the justice department had yet to receive a copy of the TRO. She subsequently said they would continue to be barred from leaving until the high court had ruled on the government’s appeal.
‘Without a remedy’
Through her lawyer Mendoza, Arroyo on Thursday asked the high court in a 13-page urgent motion to direct De Lima and Immigration Commissioner Ricardo David Jr. to immediately implement the TRO.
Arroyo said De Lima’s actions in barring her from leaving the country were a “disregard” of the separation of powers of the three branches of the government.
“Under the circumstances, [Arroyo] is without any plain, speedy and adequate remedy but to ask the Court … to direct [the] respondents to cease and desist from preventing [her] … from leaving the country for her scheduled medical treatment abroad,” the petition said.
It said De Lima’s opposition to Arroyo’s travel “openly defied” the high court’s decision to lift the travel ban “in blatant disobedience of and resistance to a lawful order” of the tribunal.
The petition added: “In preventing [Arroyo] from leaving the country despite the TRO … the respondents are disregarding the core value of separation of powers among the coequal branches of the government and the principle of checks and balances which guarantee our basic freedoms.”
According to Mendoza, the “sad spectacle” of De Lima’s purported act of defiance showed how “the highest court of the land” was “being flouted and disregarded.”
“[W]ithout action for such an odious breach, then not only this high tribunal but the law itself stands in disrepute,” he said.
He also said moving Arroyo’s scheduled medical checkups to a later date would result in “irreparable harm and injury” to her.
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