Supreme Court resets hearing on petitions against Truth Commission

MANILA, Philippines - The Supreme Court (SC) has reset its hearing on petitions questioning the creation of the Truth Commission that would investigate alleged anomalies in the nine-year term of former president and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Court administrator and spokesman Jose Midas Marquez said the oral arguments set Tuesday, Aug. 31, were moved to Sept. 7.

“It was the Office of the Solicitor General that moved for the deferment of the oral arguments on Executive Order 1 because they wanted more preparation time,” Marquez said.

The SC had ordered the government last Tuesday to comment on petitions of House Minority Leader Edcel Lagman and other allies of Mrs. Arroyo. It was given 10 days upon receipt of notice to comply with the order.

In their petition last Aug. 12, Lagman and company argued that the Palace violated the separation of powers of the executive and legislative ordained by Article VI Section 1 and Article VII Sections 1 and 17 of the Constitution.

“EO 1 arrogates the power of the Congress to create government or public offices, agencies and commissions, thereby breaching the constitutionally ordained separation of powers,” stated the 55-page petition.

They also argued that the Truth Commission has quasi-judicial powers, which requires a law and could not be created by mere executive order.

Previous commissions were created by legislative authorization, they added.

They said that the Office of the President, under Administrative Code of 1987, only has the power to reorganize its administrative structure and not to create new bodies.

The new body also “duplicates, if not supercedes, the constitutionally mandated powers of the Ombudsman and the statutorily vested powers of the Department of Justice, thus illegally amending the Constitution and the Administrative Code of 1987.”

They said it also violates the consistent and general international practice as truth commissions are usually created to exclusively investigate human rights violations.

They argued that the creation of the truth commission would be futile and is just created supposedly for “partisan hostility.”

Petitioners described the body as “an adventure in partisan hostility, a launching pad for trial/conviction by publicity and a mere populist propaganda to mistakenly impress the people that widespread poverty will altogether vanish if corruption is eliminated without even addressing the other major causes of poverty.”

“Prosecutorial and judicial bodies are in place to take cognizance and jurisdiction over graft and corruption complaints without inventing a truth commission... whose findings are only recommendatory and could be rejected by the Ombudsman and DOJ,” they stressed.

They also alleged that the issuance of EO 1 constitutes “patent grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction committed by the Office of the President.”

Reps. Rodolfo Albano Jr. of Isabela, Simeon Datumanong of Maguindanao, and Orlando Fua Jr. of Siquijor joined Lagman in filing the petition through lawyer Johween Atienza.

They did not include President Aquino in the list of respondents in the case, which includes Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. and Budget Secretary Florencio Abad.

Under EO 1 signed by Mr. Aquino last July 30, the truth commission is tasked to “investigate allegations of anomalies during the last nine years” of the Arroyo administration.