Palace: SC decision did not clip GMA’s powers

Malacañang maintained yesterday that President Arroyo was not stripped of her power to quell threats to national security when the Supreme Court declared that arrests made by the police and military under Proclamation 1017 were "unconstitutional and illegal."

Presidential chief of staff Michael Defensor said there is still a need to determine whether the arrests were really made in pursuit of Proclamation 1017 or because of existing charges or other criminal acts.

"In simple terms, what the SC told the government is that ‘you should not just hit or push someone just like that,’" Defensor said.

"The President was not deprived of any of her powers," he insisted.

In its ruling on Proclamation 1017, the high court said the military and police "committed acts which violate the citizens’ rights under the Constitution." It also declared that the government’s crackdown on street protests, warrantless arrests of political opponents and a police raid on The Daily Tribune, a newspaper critical of the administration, were illegal.

Defensor, however, argued that the arrest of Professor Randy David last February was made on the grounds of Batas Pambansa 880 or the Public Assembly Act, which was recently upheld by the SC as constitutional, while Anakpawis partylist Rep. Crispin Beltran was nabbed because of a "continuing crime" of rebellion.

The others apprehended last February were arrested based on outstanding warrants of arrests, Defensor added but did not elaborate. "It is still being clarified whether the arrests were made on the basis of Proclamation 1017," he said.