The President said yesterday in a press briefing that it was not necessary for him to declare a state of emergency in Zamboanga.
A so-called declaration of a state of emergency by the President does not confer any additional or extraordinary powers on the President. In fact, if by a mere declaration from the President, it confers nothing.
The commander—in-chief powers of the President are:
1)The “calling-out” power or the power to call out the armed forces to prevent or suppress lawless violence, etc. (the power to deploy the armed forces to any part of the country to quell rebellion, invasion, lawless violence, etc.)
2) the power to suspend the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus (when the President suspends the privilege of the writ, he could detain or order the detention of a person — but the Constitution requires only for rebellion or related offenses and that such detainee be charged within three days);
3)martial law.
The so-called emergency powers (as distinguished from the commander-in-chief powers) refer to when the President asks Congress to authorize him by law to exercise extraordinary powers, such as the take-over of public utilities – this can only be done by legislative enactment from Congress.
The better policy and tactic now is to concentrate on building up the case against her (for plunder or otherwise) – focus on gathering the primary documents:
•contracts,
•vouchers,
•checks,
•deposit slips,
•transaction slips,
•bank statements,
•photos,
•videos,
•and other documentary evidence cited by the witnesses and by the COA report;
and object evidence: equipment, infrastructure, vehicles, real and personal properties, until the evidence is more than enough for a primafacie case – instead of relying on wild talk of her possible offer of testimony.
You will need to secure documents and witnesses from the banks and the clearing houses. Fast. Now. Important.
Don’t get distracted.
— To be charged with a public official or public officials if for plunder (without prejudice to forfeiture proceedings). And, oh, important: don’t forget to add “John Does” when you craft the complaint; or as what other lawyers do in other criminal cases, you can put: “John Doe, Juan P. Doe, Bong Doe, Bongbong Doe, Jinggoy Doe, Greg Doe, and other John and Jeanne Does”… more important, make sure your Information (formal charge), and not just the complaint, contains John Does.
Make sure the Information complies with all the elements and all the terms of the criminal statute – plunder requires a series of predicate acts that are also criminal in nature, spell out what those overt acts are — open the statute books when you’re crafting the Info (do not copy and paste), make a back-and forth- and refer every line to it — even if you think it’s perfect, show it to other criminal trial experts and CPA-lawyers; the Information (formal charge) will make your case rise or fall in the preliminary motions and throughout the presentation of evidence…
