Crisis

Suddenly, there is a sense the nation is plunged into a constitutional crisis.

Last Tuesday, the Supreme Court granted the plea of the Arroyo couple for a temporary restraining order on the business of issuing “watchlist orders” (with the practical effect of hold-departure orders) on citizens with no court cases filed against them. It used to be that restraint on the freedom of movement could only be done by the courts.

There is a clear issue of rights here independent of whatever medical contingency there might be on the part of the petitioners. The issuance of the TRO came as no surprise. For days, a number of constitutional experts, including Fr. Joaquin Bernas, have been saying that guarantees contained in the Bill of Rights take precedence over all other consideration unless the life of the nation is in peril.

The Court, meeting en banc, decided by a majority vote that the petitioned TRO be granted. Those who dissented, it is reported, did not disagree on the principle of rights taking precedence over bureaucratic whim. The dissenters simply thought that oral arguments be heard first.

We all saw what happened in the hours that followed.

Lawyers for the Arroyo side quickly complied with the conditions set by the High Court. They filed bond and designated those tasked with receiving communications from the courts while the petitioners were out of the country.

The Department of Justice, for its part, refused to accept its copy of the TRO on the grounds that they were delivered (a few minutes) after the close of office hours. Thereafter, Secretary de Lima indulged in some logical acrobatics. Since they have not received the Court order, therefore they cannot comply with it.

From there, she went on to devise a new bureaucratic hurdle, saying that their view is that the Court ought not to have issued a TRO ahead of the oral arguments. Since they have not seen the TRO, they cannot abide by it. Presidential spokesman Lacierda added his own curious wisdom by saying that the TRO cannot have effect because the executive branch intended to file a motion for reconsideration.

This is all very strange. Standard political law informs even mere political scientists like me that the ruling of the Supreme Court supersedes all other conflicting opinion. This is why it is called the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court spokesman Midas Marquez put it explicitly, stating that the TRO takes immediate effect. That is how, until the age of de Lima and Lacierda, things were done.

De Lima and Lacierda, obviously hewing and hawing, tried to delay the effect of the TRO for as long as they can. They seem to be doing so under orders from their boss. In a press conference later that evening, Arroyo spokesman Len Bautista claimed that the Justice Secretary herself was in favor of letting Gloria Macapagal Arroyo leave but President Aquino held otherwise.

Panicked by news that the former president was at the airport ready to exercise her rights as a citizen in the light of a TRO, Lacierda became increasingly confused. Railing against the former president’s hurry to depart, he stumbled discussing the matter of rights. The right to life, he said, referred only to the condition of the unborn. That is a fantastic theory that suddenly withdraws the right of every Filipino citizen to safeguarding his own life, the most fundamental restraint on the authority of the state in basic democratic theory.

True to form, former president Arroyo did not miss a beat reclaiming her rights as soon as the Supreme Court allowed her to do so. Claiming a Thursday appointment with a medical specialist in Singapore, she headed to the airport to take the first flight out. She was escorted by her lawyers bearing the true copy of the Supreme Court order.

The immigrations officials were flustered. The departing dignitary had TRO in hand. All the gatekeepers had was a verbal order issued through the broadcast media by the Justice Secretary. In the normal scheme of things, the Supreme Court order takes precedence over mere administrative instructions, written or not.

The situation quickly turned comical. The airport officials disappeared one by one, sneakily concealing the former first couple’s passports on one hand and surreptitiously ordering the plane to leave on the other.

Unable to get an immigrations stamp on their passports, Gloria and Mike Arroyo had no choice but return to the hospital. The former president did look quite ill and all the excitement could not possibly be beneficial to her recovery.

They had made their point, however, and in the process forced senior administration officials to utter ridiculous things. The weight of law now bears down on the increasingly indefensible administration position.

Should they insist, as they have been through Tuesday night, in stonewalling against the Supreme Court ruling, they will put the executive branch on collision course with the judiciary. The precarious but vital balance of power in our democratic setting will be compromised. The administration’s position undermines the exclusive powers of the judiciary, precipitating initially a case for contempt and ultimately a declaration of unconstitutionality.

If they finally yield in the end, then they will be embarrassed by the exciting turn of events. If they will accede to the Supreme Court order anyway, why did they even attempt to stonewall?

The saga continues to unfold even as executive-judiciary relations were terribly strained by all that happened. The conflict between two co-equal branches of government might deepen. Even at this point, it is unclear how the institutional balance in our tripartite system of government might be repaired.