MANILA, Philippines ? Likening the Aquino administration's "Truth Commission" to an "outlaw that must be shot on sight," House Minority Leader Edcel Lagman on Tuesday asked the Supreme Court to nullify the executive order creating it for usurping the powers of Congress.

During the three-hour oral arguments at the tribunal, Lagman said Executive Order No. 1 creating the commission violated the principle of separation of powers by "usurping the powers of Congress to create public offices, agencies and commission, and to appropriate public funds."

"The Office of the President arrogated the power of the Congress to create a public office when it issued Executive Order No. 1 creating the Philippine Truth Commission of 2010," Lagman told the justices.

"If truth is to be achieved, justice served and corruption eradicated, then the `Truth Commission' is an aberration. In the language of the Honorable Supreme Court, it is like an outlaw, which must be slain at sight," he added.

Lagman said the power "to create public offices is not shared by the Constitution and by the Congress" with the President, "except in a very limited and circumscribed delegated authority as provided for in the Administrative Code of 1987."

"This delimited delegation is with respect to the continuing structural reorganization of the Office of the President," he said.

Lagman also said that the commission would have "quasi-judicial powers" and duplicated the functions of the Office of the Ombudsman and the Department of Justice.

He added that the order creating the commission violated the "equal protection clause" of the Constitution because it singled out officials of the Arroyo administration for investigation.

"If eliminating graft and corruption is the noble motive in the creation of the `Truth Commission,' then equal protection demands that all persons who belong to the same class of suspected or alleged perpetrators of graft and corruption must fall under the jurisdiction of the Truth Commission without regard to personalities and regimes," Lagman said.

"All those belonging to this class must be exposed to the same rigors and processes, the same hostility and persecution," he added.

Lagman claimed that there was "no substantial distinction of graft reportedly committed" under the Arroyo administration and graft committed under past administrations "to warrant the creation of a Truth Commission to exclusively investigate for prosecution officials and employees of the Arroyo administration."

"Executive Order No. 1 wantonly violates the equal protection clause when it deliberately vested the Truth Commission with jurisdiction and authority to solely target officials and employees of the Arroyo administration," Lagman said.

"This errant selective search for the truth and flawed pursuit of justice is patently discriminatory," he added.