Lookout bulletins
This refers to the two news stories entitled “Lookout bulletin issued vs Aquino, Garin over Dengvaxia” and “Lookout bulletins vs Noy, others to stay” written by Edu Punay last July 20 and Aug. 9, respectively.
In both news items, it is made to appear that DOJ Circular No. 41 was issued by then former justice secretary and now Senator Leila M. de Lima.
Please note, however, that the DOJ Circular No. 41, entitled “Consolidated Rules and Regulations Governing the Issuances and Implementing of Hold Departure Orders, Watchlist Orders, and Allow Departure Orders” was signed and issued by then Acting Justice Secretary Alberto C. Agra on June 7, 2010. A quick look at the official DOJ website would show that the DOJ Circular No. 41 was indeed signed by Acting Secretary Agra, De Lima’s predecessor. (Cf. https://www.doj.gov. ph/files/hold%20departure.pdf)
Sen. Leila de Lima’s statement on the SC ruling on her DOJ watch list order (18 April 2018)
Kung yan po ang pasya ng Korte Suprema na labag sa Saligang Batas yung DOJ Circular No. 14, tinatanggap ko po. Kailangan ko lang pong ihayag ang mga saloobin ko sa bagay na ito. The SC Decision nullifying DOJ Circular No. 41 and the Watch List Order issued against former President Glo- ria Macapagal-Arroyo has been a foregone conclusion ever since the Court allowed Arroyo to attempt to flee from Philippine criminal jurisdiction in November 2011.
Arroyo would have been able to leave by virtue of the SC TRO on the WLO, and thereby escape criminal prosecution for pending criminal complaints – most of them non-bailable – if not for the subsequent warrants of arrest issued by the Pasay City Regional Trial Court and the Sandiganbayan for electoral sabotage and plunder charges, respectively. These warrants of arrest actually rendered the Supreme Court case moot and academic.
Which is why it is also a wonder why it took the Court a total of almost seven years, from November 2011 until yesterday, April 17, 2018 – not to mention a change of administration – to decide a pure question of law that was, for all intents and purposes, already rendered moot and academic a long time ago.
By this time, the public is already indifferent to the whole case. I for one can no longer care less.
During that time, it was clear to me that what I was enforcing was a valid DOJ circular that was presumed constitutional until declared otherwise. How was I to know in Nov. 2011 that the WLO I issued against Arroyo was going to be declared unconstitutional by the SC in April 2018?
Hindi po ako manghuhula. Abogado ako. Kung ang Korte Suprema ay inabot ng halos pitong taon para magdesisyon kung constitutional o hindi ang WLO kay Arroyo, marahil ay hindi rin ganoon kalinaw kahit sa kanila kung tama nga ba o mali ang WLO. Dahil kung malinaw na pagkakamali at illegal ang WLO, hindi naman siguro dapat inabot ng pitong taon ang pagtalakay dito ng Korte Suprema. If it took the SC seven years to answer a single question of law, then it must really be a very difficult question of law. Hindi rin po ako ang nag-issue ng DOJ Circular No. 41. Ang DOJ po sa ilalim ni
Arroyo ang nag-issue nito. I only enforced the DOJ Circular when circumstances called for it; when an event ensued for which the DOJ Circular was precisely crafted and issued by Arroyo’s own Secretary of Justice. And that event was Arroyo’s attempted escape from the non-bailable criminal complaints then pending against her before the DOJ, and eventually the RTC and Sandiganbayan. – FERDIE J. MAGLALANG, head, media and communications, Office of Sen. Leila de Lima