House minority leader presses for ‘right to travel’ law

MANILA, Philippines—House Minority Leader Edcel Lagman on Monday asked Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. to help expedite the passage of a proposed law that will grant the courts the exclusive jurisdiction over the issuance of hold departure orders (HDOs) against individuals.

Lagman wrote the letter in light of the still unresolved controversy involving the right to travel of former President and now Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo who, along with some members of her family, have been placed on the watch list order (WLO) of the Department of Justice (DoJ) and the Bureau of Immigration.

Lagman is the principal author of House Bill No. 5111, entitled “An Act Upholding the Constitutional Right to Travel and Granting to the Proper Court the Exclusive Jurisdiction to Issue Hold Departure Orders,” which is still pending with the House committee on justice, to which it was referred last August 16.

Lagman stressed that his bill complied with the mandate of the 1987 Constitution for the Congress to provide by law the extent of the freedom to travel and its limitations.

According to Lagman, the Bill of Rights states that “the liberty of abode and of changing the same within the limits prescribed by law shall not be impaired except upon lawful order of the court. Neither shall the right to travel be impaired except in the interest of national security, public safety or public health, as may be provided by law.”

“Verily, the right to travel has been constitutionalized in the Bill of Rights as at par with the right of the accused to be presumed innocent until the contrary is proved,” Lagman wrote.

Lagman said that under his bill, the court would first conduct a hearing on a request to put a person on HDO after due notice to the parties concerned.

The bill also provides that a WLO shall not be the basis for holding or preventing the travel of an accused or respondent unless there is an HDO duly issued with finality by the proper court.

Likewise, the DoJ or the BI must see to it that the inclusion of particular persons in the WLO shall be made only after a preliminary hearing determining that their inclusion is in the interest of national security, public safety or public order.

“Similarly, the judicial issuance of an HDO shall be based solely on the three grounds prescribed by the Constitution limiting the right to travel, namely, in the interest of national security, public safety or public health; and the aforesaid three grounds are defined in House Bill No. 5111,” Lagman also said.

In his bill’s explanatory note, Lagman stressed that any restriction or limitation to basic constitutional rights must be adjudicated and imposed by the proper judicial forum with strict observance of due process.

He said this authority or jurisdiction should not be exercised by or delegated to agencies headed by presidential political appointees who could succumb to partisan pressures.