Rules of Court – Page 102 – marichulambino.com

“The Rehearsal” by Edgar Degas 1879 from www.bc.edu

Stopping the senators from playing the tapes

Is like…

(wait, I haven’t thought of an alliteration yet)

The Senate by a majority vote, in order to understand the testimonies, will play the Hello Garci tapes or parts of it.

Admin senators who do not want them to play the tapes can go to the Supreme Court on a petition for certiorari and prohibition. In order to succeed in getting a TRO, petitioners will have to show that: 1)they will suffer an irreparable injury; or 2) they have a clear, legal right that’s being violated; or 3) something is unconstitutional (no law is being challenged so I’m using the word “something”).

What is the irreparable injury to the petitioners, or the clear legal right that’s being violated? They do not want the tapes played because it is a “violation of RA 4200”. What is the injury to the petitioners? They might be held “criminally liable”. Then, walk away. There’s a remedy. (an injunction on a petition for certiorari is an extraordinary remedy available only when there is no other recourse in the ordinary course of the law etc. ). Walk away from the scene. Put one foot in front of the other. It’s real easy. “Criminal liability”, if any, is personal.

But we don’t want the Senate to be “criminally liable”. Only living natural persons can be punished for crimes; the “criminal liability”, if any, cannot apply to a non-natural person.

Only those individuals who stand to suffer a grave and irreparable injury, can invoke the ground of grave and irreparable injury. And these are the individuals whose phones were tapped or whose conversations were recorded: the woman who sounded like Gloria; and Garci; and other public officials/ figures.

What about: the resolution is unconstitutional because it violates the right to privacy in the Bill of Rights? The Supreme Court has ruled in many cases that only the person whose right to privacy is being violated, can invoke it.

So, a TRO against the Senate to stop it from playing the tapes on a certiorari petition filed by admin senators, may be difficult to wangle. They can file criminal complaints later but criminal complaints do not work as an injunction. There will be a preliminary investigation, a resolution, then if there’s a prima facie case, an indictment.

I’ll tell you what…Maybe you can theorize… that while they’re playing the tapes… they are in the process of….committing a crime….(you said it was a violation of RA 4200)…and they can be warrantlessly arrested…on the spot…it’s in the Rules of Court…and you get to stop the tapes from being played…on the spot…the only person able to do so….Don’t tell anyone that came from me!

But can you imagine the spectacle of that? Senate President Manny Villar being hauled off by the police or NBI, and the senators each being handcuffed or taken away or Mirandized. Unthinkable. Not politically advisable.

I just like twirling the procedure, the Rules of Court, turning them on their head. That is the effect, this morning, we had our flowing yoga poses for one hour and I kept tipping. Tipping. Tipping. And it made me laugh. And I lost my concentration. I think I almost made my yoga teacher laugh.

I’m really glad we don’t have to do this on a cliff.

(stopping the senators

from playing the tapes

is like stopping my

li’l tree-pose from tipping.)

“The Apotheosis of War”, 1871, by Vasily Vereshchagin, oil on canvas, published by the Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia

The President in a speech today said she would crush the insurgency in three years but said she would observe democratic processes and the rule of law.

It’s not really new since she said the same thing during her 2004 State of the Nation Address, after we thought she’d won the elections — a SONA she delivered after she broke every law since Day One of her “oath”.

Exhibits “A” to “A-33” – three-hour tape in mp3 format of the phone conversations between a woman who sounded like Gloria and a man who sounded like Garci, where the woman asked Garci to pad her votes by one million more.

Purpose of exhibits: To show that Gloria Macapagal Arroyo violated the Article XI Sec. 1 Accountability of Public Officers; RA 3019 Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, and the Omnibus Election Code.

Gloria said in her speech today: “The AFP [Armed Forces of the Philippines] must evolve a strategy of rapid conclusion to address rebellion, with the National Security Council providing policy direction on communist insurgency, Muslim secessionism, and sheer terrorism.”

Exhibits “B” to “B-403” – the skulls and bones of NGO workers and human rights organizers, that had been politically assassinated by her military under her “Oplan Bantay-Laya” which she had approved for implementation.

Purpose of exhibits: To show that she and her personnel violated Art. 248 of the Revised Penal Code (murder), 403 counts.

She added in her speech: “We are currently engaged in three fronts – the communist insurgency, rebellion in the South, and sheer terrorism with no pretenses….I have specified a timeline — three years — to end armed rebellion in the Philippines.”

Exhibits C to “C-93” – clothes and personal effects of 93 victims of enforced disappearances during her term.

Purpose: To show that she and personnel violated Art. 267 of the RPC (kidnapping and serious illegal detention) 93 counts.

This evening, the Supreme Court en banc in a resolution penned by Chief Justice Reynato Puno on petition of farmers Raymond and Reynaldo Manalo, brothers, who were allegedly detained for 18 months and tortured by militiamen with the military, issued a TRO against the Defense Secretary, the Armed Forces Chief, and all agents acting on their behalf, to desist from arresting and detaining the brothers; the brothers also testified that they saw and talked to the U.P. students Karen Empeño and Sherlyn Cadapan when they were detained in Zambales.

She stressed today: “Either we get rid of them now or later, either way, they must be stopped…. We will not stop until the bandits find no more nook to hide in the land they have blighted and no sanctuary to seek from the people they have terrorized and used as shields.”

Exhibits “D” to “D-90” – the 90 cases of graft and corruption of Cabinet rank and other high-ranking public officials sitting on her desk submitted to her by her own PAGC, recommending dismissal of these officials and the filing of criminal cases against them.

Purpose: To show she violated RA 3019 Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices by knowingly coddling corrupt Cabinet-rank and high-ranking public officials.

Yesterday, she tried to dismiss new evidence arising from the testimony of her former spy, Agent Doble, that the phone companies were used to bug Commissioner Garcillano and other well-known individuals, by saying:

“I have a country to run…”

It isn’t hers to run. It was never hers.
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