‘Ilocos 6’ to CA: Resolve habeas corpus plea

MANILA, Philippines - The six Ilocos Norte officials detained at the House of Representatives have asked the Court of Appeals (CA) to resolve their habeas corpus petition and order their permanent release.

In a 18-page motion filed on June 23, the provincial officials urged the special fourth division of the appellate court to declare their continued detention as illegal and a form of torture.

“The four weeks the petitioners spent in detention is time lost which petitioners could never recover. The honorable court, by exercising its power to issue the extraordinary writ of habeas corpus, may still relieve petitioners of the protracted and arbitrary deprivation of their liberty,” the motion filed by the lead counsel of the officials, former solicitor general Estelito Mendoza, read.  

A writ of habeas corpus, which literally means to “produce the body,” is an order to deliver a detained person to a court.

The provincial officials said previous CA orders were futile because the House leadership ignored them

“The repeated refusal of respondent to appear before the court, the adamant refusal to receive service of the order of release of petitioners and...comply with said order reveals the lack of respect of respondent and of his superiors for the basic constitutional rights of petitioners,” the motion stated, referring to House sergeant-at-arms Roland Detabali. 

House defiant

Meanwhile, the House remains defiant to calls to reconsider its show cause order against three CA justices, saying the Supreme Court should crack the whip on its errant subordinates. 

Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez said Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno should instead discipline the CA members “for grave abuse of discretion and abuse of authority.”  

Alvarez said the high tribunal “has the power to rectify the uneasy situation” because of the “recklessness” of Justices Stephen Cruz, Erwin Sorongon and Nina Antonino-Valenzuela. 

Alvarez had called the CA justices names, among them “stupid, idiots and ignorant of the law.”  

Sereno, CA Presiding Justice Andres Reyes Jr. and the board of governors of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines earlier asked the House to recall its show cause order against the CA justices and just avail of remedies under the rules of court.

Pedro Agcaoili, provincial planning and development office chairman; Josephine Calajate, treasurer; Eden Battulayan, Encarnacion Gaor and Genedine Jambaro of the treasurer’s office and Evangeline Tabulog, budget officer, have been detained since May 29 after they were cited in contempt by the House committee on good government and public accountability over their alleged evasive answers during the probe into alleged misuse of tobacco funds. – With Delon Porcalla