CA presses House to yield ‘Ilocos Six’, warns of contempt rap

House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez (Photo from his Facebook page)

The Court of Appeals has issued a show cause order requiring the leadership of the House of Representatives and the chamber’s Sergeant-At-Arms to explain why they should not be cited in contempt for refusing to release from detention six employees of the Ilocos Norte provincial government.

In an order made public Monday, the appeals court’s Special Fourth Division directed Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez to submit an explanation why they should not be cited in contempt for defying its order to present the six employees of the provincial government before the appellate court and eventually release them last week.

The employees – Genedine D. Jambaro, Encarnacion A. Gaor, Josephine P. Calajate, Eden C. Battulayan, Evangeline C. Tabuluog, and Pedro S. Agcaoili Jr – have been detained at the Batasan Complex since May 29 after being cited in contempt by the House committee on good government and public accountability during its probe into the alleged misuse of P66.45 million in tobacco funds. The tobacco funds were used by the local government to buy motor vehicles.

The show cause order was also addressed to House Sergeant-At-Arms retired Lt. Gen. Roland M. Detabali.

Lawyer Butch Catubay, legal counsel of the so-called “Ilocos Six,” stressed that the CA has already ruled that it has jurisdiction over the petition of the detained employees since it is a “matter of a habeas corpus case.”

The CA said jurisprudence and the decisions of the court are “concurrent with the Supreme Court and the Regional Trial Court when it comes to habeas corpus cases.”

Former Solicitor General Estelito Mendoza, who is defending  the “Ilocos Six, ”described the manner of questioning on the workers last May 29 led by Ilocos Norte 1st District Rep. Rodolfo “Rudy” Fariñas with the House Committee as “coercive” and “amounting to torture.”

“This torture has been continuing by their indefinite detention in degrading and inhuman conditions and direct assaults on their ‘dignity as human persons’ and blatant violations of their human rights,” Mendoza lamented.

Meanwhile, CA process server is expected to file his reports tomorrow, June 13, to the Clerk of Court of the Fourth Division after they were not allowed to enter the House to serve the “immediate” order of release of the six detained employees./ac