Courts urged to issue gag order on GMA cases

MANILA, Philippines - Zambales Rep. Milagros Magsaysay called on all concerned parties to refrain from speaking on the issues and charges filed against former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo since the cases are already pending before the courts.

Magsaysay said the Pasay Regional Trial Court (RTC) and the Supreme Court (SC) should also issue a gag order and warn violators, particularly those who are not directly involved in the cases and officials of the Aquino administration, of being cited for contempt to prevent interference in the ongoing judicial process.

The Pasay RTC is where charges of electoral sabotage were filed against Arroyo and it is currently deciding on whether to grant her petition to be placed under house arrest.

The SC is deliberating on several cases involving the former leader, including the constitutionality of the watchlist order issued against her by the Department of Justice (DOJ).

Magsaysay also chided those calling on Chief Justice Renato Corona to inhibit himself on cases involving Arroyo.

She added that President Aquino and Justice Secretary Leila de Lima should also refrain from talking about the issue unless they are in court.

“If you’re the judge, you might feel threatened also or intimidated by the statements that would be released. So, if I were them, I would rather refrain from making statements or giving opinions because it might be construed as you giving undue influence (to the judge),” she said.

The lawmaker suggested that both the Pasay RTC and the SC issue warnings against publicly speaking on the cases unless during hearings. She said violators should be cited for contempt.

“I think the court should put its foot down. What is happening here is that other branches of government are interfering in the functions of another branch of government. There might be chaos here if you start interfering in the position of the others,” Magsaysay said.

Senior Deputy Minority Leader and Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez said senators calling on Corona to inhibit should also restrain themselves in Senate investigations because of their obvious bias against Arroyo.

“Why don’t those detractors inhibit themselves also when they are in the Blue Ribbon committee? That’s (calling on Corona to inhibit himself) so wrong. He’s the country’s chief justice,” Suarez said.

Cabalens to GMA: Put her in jail

In Pampanga, a group calling itself Kapampangan Manalakaran Inc. (KMI) called on the Aquino administration to treat Arroyo “like a common a offender.”

The group, composed of “well-meaning Kapampangans involved in the quest for good governance and ethical leadership” in the province for years now, also addressed itself to other “Cabalens” of the former president, asking them not to be “blinded either by fraternal or even communal link with CGMA (Arroyo).”

The group’s message was contained in a manifesto issued yesterday through lawyer Maie Tiglao-Cayanan after another group of Kapampangans, led by the Pampanga Mayors’ League, issued another manifesto seeking house arrest instead of government facility detention for Arroyo, who is facing electoral sabotage charges.

“We, the Kapampangan Manalakaran, assert that Mrs. Arroyo should be treated by the Aquino administration, the Commission on Elections, and the Supreme Court in the same manner like a common offender,” the manifesto said.

It noted that “her being a representative, or even her being a former president, does not put her over and above us ordinary citizens.”

KMI said exempting Arroyo from the usual prescriptions of the law “would send a wrong signal to every Juan or Juana de la Cruz, especially the poor.”

“That would be a source of shame particularly to the Kapampangans she represents,” the group said, adding that privileged treatment of Arroyo would convey the message that “the rich and powerful can do anything in this country, for anyway they can hire the best and brightest lawyers in the land to defend them from the law and that the poor have no other fate but to languish in jail.” – Ding Cervantes