DOJ: Palace may issue new EO on truth body

MANILA, Philippines - Malacañang might issue another order to replace Executive Order No. 1 creating the Truth Commission, if the Supreme Court (SC) upholds its previous ruling declaring the EO unconstitutional, according to Justice Secretary Leila de Lima.

“The better option is just to issue a new EO, a new EO on the Truth Commission, this time addressing the objections of the SC, (if our) motion for reconsideration (will be denied),” De Lima told Palace reporters in a recent interview.

She said amending EO 1 might not be legally feasible at this point since 10 of the 15 SC justices had decided that it violated the equal protection clause guaranteed under the 1987 Constitution.

“How can you amend something that has been declared null and void? So the better option is to just issue a new EO altogether, taking into consideration now the objections discussed in the majority opinion,” De Lima said.

“One strong option is really to just issue another EO. That’s one of the strong options. (The) amendment is (quite unclear),” she said.

She indicated that this option would depend on how quickly the SC would rule on the government’s appeal.

“It all depends now on the progress of the MR (motion for reconsideration) before the SC, whether other options would be considered at this point. We hope that the SC will expeditiously dispose of that MR,” De Lima said.

President Aquino earlier hinted that he was bent on creating the Truth Commission.

“There is a motion for reconsideration, but there are other avenues open to us in ferreting out the truth and we will exercise those options,” he said.

“Amending is one option, (but) again we’ll announce later specifics of what we intend to do in the interim while the MR is being heard, or if the SC will take cognizance of our MR,” he added. 

Aquino alleged that the SC was biased toward him, citing the voided EO 1 creating the Truth Commission that is not different from the commissions created by his predecessors, whose legal precedents he religiously observed.

He made a direct comparison to commissions formed by past presidents that included the Presidential Commission on Good Government that was created by his late mother, former President Cory Aquino, in the early 1990s.

Aquino’s other predecessors, including former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, had formed six commissions.

“Ano ba ang pinagkaiba noon sa ginawa (what is the difference when), for instance, former President Joseph Estrada set up the Saguisag Commission to study the 1998 Centennial Expo? That was one particular project of the entire Ramos administration,” he argued

“Ms. Arroyo herself had set up not less than five and probably more commissions to study various problems,” Aquino said, apparently referring to the Feliciano, Melo and Zenarosa commissions, and the one that investigated the Meralco bribery scandal in the Court of Appeals.

The President could not hide his disappointment over the SC that voted 10-5 to reject the Truth Commission that is supposed to be headed by former Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr.

Aquino highlighted the obstacle this ruling could have on the reform agenda of his administration, noting that it normally takes six years for every judiciary level to resolve a petition, in which case his term until June 2016 would have ended by then.

In defense of the SC, spokesman Midas Marquez said the tribunal was not being harsh on Aquino and was in fact supportive of his reform agenda, if only he and his colleagues really understood the ruling.

“We are applying the law fairly and equally to all... the Court is not, and will not, single out anyone,” he said, adding that if only executive department fully understood the ponencia of Justice Jose Mendoza, it would have a better grasp of what really went wrong.

A key portion of the ruling penned by Mendoza stated that “the search for the truth must be within constitutional bounds.”