The usual slow grind

Promulgated on July 5, 2022, the Supreme Court (SC) ruled to dismiss a Senate petition against the gag order issued by then president Rodrigo Duterte related to the Senate Blue Ribbon committee public hearings on the alleged anomalies that went into COVID-19 pandemic procurement deals. Noticeably, the promulgation came five days after ex-president Duterte stepped down from office at Malacañang.

However, this SC ruling was released to the public only last Oct.18, copies of which were provided to the press last Monday. I don’t know what red tape this ruling got entangled in, from the time it was promulgated until it was released to the press.

Except for two SC justices who had dissenting opinions, the 15-man High Court led by Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo concurred with the majority ruling. The 22-page ruling was penned by SC Associate Justice Amy Lazaro-Javier. SC Senior Associate Justices Marvic Leonen and Alfredo Benjamin Caguiao voted against the majority ruling. Both Leonen and Caguiao are the last two remaining appointees at the SC of the late president Benigno Simeon Aquino III.

It was by a stroke of luck that the six-year presidency of the former Davao City mayor coincided with the retirement of the many former SC associate justices. By the time ex-president Duterte bowed out of Malacañang, he had promoted Gesmundo as Chief Justice and appointed 12 other associate justices to the SC.

Obviously, nothing much has changed on how the wheels of justice grind exceedingly slow all the way up to the highest court of the land.

This we saw as a young reporter while pounding the SC and Department of Justice beats, both located at Padre Faura Avenue in Manila. No wonder the SC got the monicker “the gods of Padre Faura.”

Retired SC senior associate justice Antonio Carpio alluded to the ancient Greek theater stage prop called deux ex machina to symbolize the moment when the gods of Olympus would descend from a mechanical device to resolve an insoluble plot at the end of the drama. “The deux ex machina in the Constitution is when the gods of Padre Faura descend from their high perch to exercise their sacred duty and power to protect and enforce the constitutional rights of the people,” Carpio once wrote in his opinion column.

Such overly delayed ruling of the SC, however, is the opposite effect of the deux ex machina. This particular SC decision has become anti-climactic, to say the least. There was so much publicity and hype beforehand that this SC ruling became moot and academic already, aside from the technicality cited for its dismissal.

A number of petitioners in this particular case are either no longer in office or holding other offices at present. They include former Senate president Vicente Sotto III; Senate president pro tempore Ralph Recto; Senate majority leader Juan Miguel Zubiri; Senate minority leader Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III and senator Richard Gordon as the chairman of the Senate Blue Ribbon committee.

In this SC en banc’s decision, it denied the petition for certiorari and prohibition filed by the Senate in November 2021. The High Court upheld the position of the Executive Department. The SC magistrates invoked “the sacred principle of separation of powers” of co-equal branches of government. In so many words, the SC reminded the Senate to follow its own rules in resolving challenges to a committee’s jurisdiction to hold inquiries in aid of legislation.

In their petition, the senators challenged the memorandum issued on Oct. 4, 2021 “By Order of the President” and signed by former executive secretary Salvador Medialdea. The presidential directive was issued while the Senate Blue Ribbon committee was conducting hearings on how the Department of Health (DOH) handled the procurement of vaccines and medicines, protective personnel equipment (PPEs) and test kits for the COVID-19 pandemic campaign using the Congress-approved Bayanihan to Heal As One Act.

The Senate hearings were initially attended by concerned officials of the Executive branch, including then health secretary Francisco Duque III and top officials of the Procurement Services of the Department of Budget and Management (PS-DBM). It stemmed from a Commission on Audit (COA) report that flagged P67 billion worth of public funds intended for the government’s COVID-19 response. Several private suppliers/contractors led by top executives of Pharmally Pharmaceuticals Corp. were also grilled at the Senate public hearing on this case.

Mr. Duterte prohibited Executive officials and employees from further attending the Senate public hearings. Telecast live on radio and TV, the Senate public hearings had been going on for two months when the presidential gag order took effect.

The former chief executive furiously defended Duque and other Cabinet and government officials who he claimed were already affected, especially their ability to fulfill their duties at the height of the pandemic. Mr. Duterte singled out in particular senator Gordon for the latter’s “bullying” tactics of resource persons supposedly invited to shed light on questioned procurement deals.

To make the long story short, the Senate Blue Ribbon committee proceeded with its public hearings with or without the continuing participation of Cabinet officials. Gordon came out with its Committee Report recommending the prosecution for plunder and graft of all government officials concerned, and included Mr. Duterte, who was still covered by presidential immunity from suit.

It was only in August this year that Ombudsman Samuel Martires approved the filing before the Sandiganbayan of the graft charges – not plunder – against several PS-DBM top officials along with some of the Pharmally top executives, even if the alleged P4 billion worth of irregularities found in this case was more than the P50-million plunder threshold.

So the celebrated case has already been turned over to the anti-graft court. Hopefully, it does not get the usual slow grind of justice.