Estrada to DFA: Don’t cancel passport

By: Maila Ager - 11 years ago

Sen. Jinggoy Estrada INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines – Senator Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada has asked the Department of Foreign Affairs to reject the Department of Justice’s request to cancel his passport, saying it is a violation of his constitutional rights.

In a letter to Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario, Estrada through his counsel Estelito Mendoza, said the cancellation of his passport would “amount to a crippling impairment of [his] fundamental right to travel and egregious violation of fundamental right to liberty.”

The letter was in response to the request of Justice Secretary Leila de Lima to the Department of Foreign Affairs for the expeditious cancellation of his passport last October 23.

But Mendoza said the cancellation of Estrada’s passport was “violative” of the senator’s rights under the Constitution and international covenants, particularly Universal Declaration of Human Rights and International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which state that everyone has the right to leave and to return to his country.

He then cited pertinent provisions of the Republic Act 8239 or the Philippine Passport Act of 1996 which enumerates the grounds for passport cancellation: When the holder is a fugitive from justice; when the holder has been convicted of a criminal offense; and when the passport was acquired fraudulently or tampered with.

The same law, Mendoza said, did not confer on the Secretary of Foreign Affairs the authority to cancel the passport of Estrada.

“It would be undue delegation of legislative power to the DFA Secretary, and the power vested to him to cancel passports is limited to specific grounds provided under Section 8 of RA 8239,” he said.

Mendoza said the Passport Act did not also provide that the cancellation of passports of those accused of plunder before the Office of the Ombudsman was in the interest of national security.

He pointed out that Estrada, who has been charged with plunder for alleged misuse of his “pork barrel funds, was neither a fugitive from justice nor has he been convicted of a criminal offense.

“No law has also been enacted prohibiting any person accused on plunder before the Office of the Ombudsman from leaving the country and obtaining a passport for that purpose or if one has been issued, for its cancellation,” said the lawyer.

Mendoza said, “Any restraint of liberty, including right to travel, at any stage of criminal proceedings, not imposed by the Sandiganbayan is implicitly prohibited.”

“In essence, if granted, the request of Secretary De Lima for the cancellation of the passport of Senator Estrada would inflict upon him punishment even before the Office of the Ombudsman finds adequate basis to conduct a preliminary investigation of the complaint of the National Bureau of Investigation,” the lawyer further said.