Illegal aliens can’t avail of ‘corpus’ writ, says SC

Arrested and detained illegal aliens are not entitled to the privilege of a writ of habeas corpus after they have been duly charged for violating Philippine immigration laws.

This legal principle was declared by the Supreme Court in its recent decision suspending a Pasig City judge who ordered Immigration Commissioner Rufus Rodriguez arrested and detained last year for his refusal to release a suspected Chinese prostitute.

Pasig Regional Trial Court Judge Rodolfo Bonifacio was suspended for three months without pay for gross ignorance of the law in having Rodriguez arrested after finding him guilty of indirect contempt for defying a writ of habeas corpus he issued in favor of the Chinese woman named Ma Jing.

The court said that once a detainee is duly charged in court, he may no longer question his detention through a petition for issuance of a writ of habeas corpus. It explained that the term "court" includes quasi-judicial bodies like the Board of Commissioners of the Bureau of Immigration (BI).

"The writ of habeas corpus should not be allowed after the party sought to be released had been charged before any court," the high court said in a decision written by Associate Justice Consuelo Ynares-Santiago.

The court observed that at the time Bonifacio ordered Ma Jing released from the BI jail in Bicutan, the latter was already charged with a deportation case for working in the country without a permit.

"Even granting that the arrest of Ma Jing was initially illegal, the filing of the charge sheet cured whatever incipient infirmity there was in her arrest," the tribunal stressed.

It further asserted that while the bureau has not yet completed its hearing and investigation of the alien facing deportation, "habeas corpus proceedings are premature and should be dismissed."

Besides, the high court pointed out that when Bonifacio issued the arrest order covering Rodriguez, the BI had already issued a summary deportation order for Ma Jing.

It reiterated a previous high court ruling which held that when an alien is detained by the BI pursuant to a deportation order, "the Regional Trial Courts have no power to release the said alien on bail even in habeas corpus proceedings because there is no law authorizing it."