PCGG chair arrestedfor snubbing Senate - Malaya 09.13.2006
BY DENNIS GADIL
THE Senate yesterday showed its teeth in going after officials who snub its committee hearings by arresting Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) chairman Camilo Sabio.
The warrant of arrest was served at Sabio’s office in Edsa, Mandaluyong, around 10 a.m. It was signed by Senate President Manuel Villar Monday night.
PCGG commissioners Ricardo Abcede, Narciso Nario, Nicasio Conti and Tereso Javier were not around when the members of the Office of the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms (OSSAA) headed by retired Brig. Gen. Jose Balajadia came to serve their arrest warrants.
The PCGG supervises the Philcomsat Holdings Corp. (PHC) which is major stockholder in the sequestered Philippine Communications Satellite Corp. (Philcomsat).
Sabio, a former House secretary general, said he will question his arrest before the Supreme Court.
Sabio said he yielded to the Senate order but maintained that his arrest was "null and void from the beginning."
PCGG lawyers led by Jay Miguel said they will file a petition for habeas corpus. He said the Office of the Solicitor General is drafting the petition.
Miguel said they will continue to invoke Executive Order 1, which created the PCGG and provides the agency blanket immunity from judicial and congressional investigations.
"There’s a legal basis for refusing to attend the Senate inquiry," Miguel said.
Sen. Richard Gordon, whose Senate committee on government corporations and public enterprises initiated the arrest orders on motion by Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile, appealed to officials of PCGG and PHC to follow Sabio’s example.
Senate security forces failed to serve the warrants on PHC board chair Benito Araneta, director and vice president Philip Brodett, treasurer Manuel Andal, and directors Julio Jalandoni and Luis Lokin Jr. at the company’s office in Makati.
Balajadia said they will serve the arrest warrants at the residences of the PHC officials.
Gordon said Sabio was in high spirits at the Senate clinic.
Mariano Blancia, Senate medical director, said they will recommend to the Gordon panel that Sabio be immediately transferred to a hospital due to his erratic blood pressure.
Blancia said Sabio was on maintenance drugs.
He said they are awaiting Sabio’s medical history from his cardiologist. He said they will still have to make a formal recommendation to the Senate joint panel.
Sabio’s blood pressure shot up to 120 over 100, prompting Gordon to order the temporary detention of Sabio at the Senate clinic for observation.
Gordon said the Senate is prepared to bring Sabio to any medical facility if his condition worsens.
PCGG co-legal counsel Tomas Evangelista said Sabio was "sickly and could be suffering from asthma."
He said Sabio does not often read or watch news reports, which should explain why he was caught unaware by the service of the warrant.
Evangelista said the arrest was an "overkill."
Senate sources said Sabio got a call from Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita during his transit to the Senate building. Ermita apparently was confirming Sabio’s arrest.
The sources said Ermita promised Sabio that the government would exert all efforts to have him released.
Gordon said the PCGG could no longer invoke EO 1 since it was issued under a revolutionary government.
He cited a Supreme Court ruling saying that as a co-equal branch, the high tribunal can look into PCGG’s actions.
Gordon said the Senate, being a co-equal body of the executive and the judiciary, also possesses the same powers.
Sen. Joker Arroyo, chair of the committee on public services, said Sabio "cannot invoke EO 1 dated February 1986 for the simple reason that the provision has been effectively repealed by the Constitution, Article VI, Section 21 and 22."
"In Feb. 1986, we had no Congress, there were no legislative investigations. All that Commissioner Sabio has to do is to answer questions that he has been asked but which he refused to answer invoking provisions in EO 1," said Sen. Arroyo, who was executive secretary of President Corazon Aquino when the EO was issued.
EO 1 exempts the PCGG and its officials from appearing and submitting documents in any judicial, legislative or administrative proceedings.
Sen. Franklin Drilon said Sabio’s arrest clearly shows that the Senate "was prepared to assert its authority."
"This is a warning to the bureaucracy that when summons are issued by the Senate, my friendly advice to all of you is to heed the summons because this is part of the function of the legislature," Drilon, a former Senate president, said.
Drilon said under the Senate rules, persons ordered arrested and detained by the Senate would be set free only "until they would cleanse themselves of their contemptuous conduct by testifying."
Sabio will have his chance to testify on Thursday when the Gordon panel resumes its Philcomsat hearing.
The Gordon panel, which is probing PHC’s alleged mismanagement with Sen. Arroyo’s committee on public services, was forced to issue the arrest orders after PHC and PCGG officials snubbed the joint panel hearings three consecutive times.
GRAVE ABUSE OF DISCRETION
The PCGG filed a petition at the Supreme Court seeking to nullify the issuance of a warrant of arrest by the Senate against its officers and to enjoin Senate from compelling the commissioners to testify and produce evidence before them.
Solicitor General Eduardo Nachura said the arrest warrant issued by the Senate committee was in excess of its jurisdiction and with grave abuse of discretion, considering that the inquiries conducted by respondent committees are not in aid of legislation.
"Proceedings were conducted in the absence of duly published rules of procedure, and (respondent committees) are not vested with the power of contempt. The questioned inquiries are rendered all the more anomalous with the active participation of respondent Senator Juan Ponce Enrile," Nachura said.
The OSG said there is no justifiable ground for Gordon’s committee to plainly ignore or discard Section 4(b) of EO 1.
Under this provision, "no member or staff of the Commission shall be required to testify or produce evidence in any judicial, legislative or administrative proceeding concerning matters within its official cognizance."
"The validity and constitutionality of the above provision of law has not been questioned.
Section 4(b) of EO 1 thereby constitutes a limitation on the power of the legislative inquiry and a recognition by the State of the need to provide protection to the PCGG in order to ensure the unhampered performance of its duties under its charter," Nachura said.
THE Senate yesterday showed its teeth in going after officials who snub its committee hearings by arresting Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) chairman Camilo Sabio.
The warrant of arrest was served at Sabio’s office in Edsa, Mandaluyong, around 10 a.m. It was signed by Senate President Manuel Villar Monday night.
PCGG commissioners Ricardo Abcede, Narciso Nario, Nicasio Conti and Tereso Javier were not around when the members of the Office of the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms (OSSAA) headed by retired Brig. Gen. Jose Balajadia came to serve their arrest warrants.
The PCGG supervises the Philcomsat Holdings Corp. (PHC) which is major stockholder in the sequestered Philippine Communications Satellite Corp. (Philcomsat).
Sabio, a former House secretary general, said he will question his arrest before the Supreme Court.
Sabio said he yielded to the Senate order but maintained that his arrest was "null and void from the beginning."
PCGG lawyers led by Jay Miguel said they will file a petition for habeas corpus. He said the Office of the Solicitor General is drafting the petition.
Miguel said they will continue to invoke Executive Order 1, which created the PCGG and provides the agency blanket immunity from judicial and congressional investigations.
"There’s a legal basis for refusing to attend the Senate inquiry," Miguel said.
Sen. Richard Gordon, whose Senate committee on government corporations and public enterprises initiated the arrest orders on motion by Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile, appealed to officials of PCGG and PHC to follow Sabio’s example.
Senate security forces failed to serve the warrants on PHC board chair Benito Araneta, director and vice president Philip Brodett, treasurer Manuel Andal, and directors Julio Jalandoni and Luis Lokin Jr. at the company’s office in Makati.
Balajadia said they will serve the arrest warrants at the residences of the PHC officials.
Gordon said Sabio was in high spirits at the Senate clinic.
Mariano Blancia, Senate medical director, said they will recommend to the Gordon panel that Sabio be immediately transferred to a hospital due to his erratic blood pressure.
Blancia said Sabio was on maintenance drugs.
He said they are awaiting Sabio’s medical history from his cardiologist. He said they will still have to make a formal recommendation to the Senate joint panel.
Sabio’s blood pressure shot up to 120 over 100, prompting Gordon to order the temporary detention of Sabio at the Senate clinic for observation.
Gordon said the Senate is prepared to bring Sabio to any medical facility if his condition worsens.
PCGG co-legal counsel Tomas Evangelista said Sabio was "sickly and could be suffering from asthma."
He said Sabio does not often read or watch news reports, which should explain why he was caught unaware by the service of the warrant.
Evangelista said the arrest was an "overkill."
Senate sources said Sabio got a call from Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita during his transit to the Senate building. Ermita apparently was confirming Sabio’s arrest.
The sources said Ermita promised Sabio that the government would exert all efforts to have him released.
Gordon said the PCGG could no longer invoke EO 1 since it was issued under a revolutionary government.
He cited a Supreme Court ruling saying that as a co-equal branch, the high tribunal can look into PCGG’s actions.
Gordon said the Senate, being a co-equal body of the executive and the judiciary, also possesses the same powers.
Sen. Joker Arroyo, chair of the committee on public services, said Sabio "cannot invoke EO 1 dated February 1986 for the simple reason that the provision has been effectively repealed by the Constitution, Article VI, Section 21 and 22."
"In Feb. 1986, we had no Congress, there were no legislative investigations. All that Commissioner Sabio has to do is to answer questions that he has been asked but which he refused to answer invoking provisions in EO 1," said Sen. Arroyo, who was executive secretary of President Corazon Aquino when the EO was issued.
EO 1 exempts the PCGG and its officials from appearing and submitting documents in any judicial, legislative or administrative proceedings.
Sen. Franklin Drilon said Sabio’s arrest clearly shows that the Senate "was prepared to assert its authority."
"This is a warning to the bureaucracy that when summons are issued by the Senate, my friendly advice to all of you is to heed the summons because this is part of the function of the legislature," Drilon, a former Senate president, said.
Drilon said under the Senate rules, persons ordered arrested and detained by the Senate would be set free only "until they would cleanse themselves of their contemptuous conduct by testifying."
Sabio will have his chance to testify on Thursday when the Gordon panel resumes its Philcomsat hearing.
The Gordon panel, which is probing PHC’s alleged mismanagement with Sen. Arroyo’s committee on public services, was forced to issue the arrest orders after PHC and PCGG officials snubbed the joint panel hearings three consecutive times.
GRAVE ABUSE OF DISCRETION
The PCGG filed a petition at the Supreme Court seeking to nullify the issuance of a warrant of arrest by the Senate against its officers and to enjoin Senate from compelling the commissioners to testify and produce evidence before them.
Solicitor General Eduardo Nachura said the arrest warrant issued by the Senate committee was in excess of its jurisdiction and with grave abuse of discretion, considering that the inquiries conducted by respondent committees are not in aid of legislation.
"Proceedings were conducted in the absence of duly published rules of procedure, and (respondent committees) are not vested with the power of contempt. The questioned inquiries are rendered all the more anomalous with the active participation of respondent Senator Juan Ponce Enrile," Nachura said.
The OSG said there is no justifiable ground for Gordon’s committee to plainly ignore or discard Section 4(b) of EO 1.
Under this provision, "no member or staff of the Commission shall be required to testify or produce evidence in any judicial, legislative or administrative proceeding concerning matters within its official cognizance."
"The validity and constitutionality of the above provision of law has not been questioned.
Section 4(b) of EO 1 thereby constitutes a limitation on the power of the legislative inquiry and a recognition by the State of the need to provide protection to the PCGG in order to ensure the unhampered performance of its duties under its charter," Nachura said.
posted by brodkaster43 at Miyerkules, Setyembre 13, 2006
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