Ex-senator’s brother appeals Senate arrest order

MANILA, Philippines - One of three individuals ordered arrested by the Senate Blue Ribbon committee has asked Sen. Teofisto Guingona III to reconsider the order because he was not given due process.

In a letter to Guingona, Jack Arroyo Jr., an ophthalmologist and brother of former senator Joker Arroyo, urged the Senate panel to review the circumstances of his case and recall the order citing him in contempt.

Arroyo, along with Marguerite Lichnock and Laureano Gregorio Jr., was ordered arrested by the Senate last Wednesday for failing to attend the hearings conducted by the Blue Ribbon subcommittee on allegations of corruption against Vice President Jejomar Binay.

Arroyo’s name was mentioned in the issue of the joint venture agreement between the University of Makati and Systems Technology Inc. for the management of UMAK’s school of nursing.

In his letter, Arroyo argued that the arrest order could not be enforced by the Senate panel.

“We concede that the committee can cite a resource person in contempt and cause his detention. However, the committee can enforce that power only when the same resource person is actually before the Senate and defies its order,” Arroyo said.

He said only a judge can issue a warrant of arrest and the right of a person against unreasonable searches and seizures is inviolable, and that no warrant or arrest shall be issued except upon probable cause to be determined by the judge after examination under oath of the complainants and witnesses is guaranteed under the Bill of Rights.

“That constitutional protection to the citizenry may not be contravened, much less withdrawn, by the Senate, through its Rules of Procedure, by granting themselves the forbidden power of arrest,” Arroyo noted.

He added serving warrants of arrest is not among the duties of the Senate sergeant-at-arms as contained in the Senate Rules.