DOJ to obey SC ruling voiding agency’s travel ban orders

Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra. PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO

Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said on Wednesday that he would abide by the decision of the Supreme Court (SC) declaring as unconstitutional the travel ban orders issued by the Department of Justice (DOJ) against individuals facing criminal investigation.

“We respect the decision of the Supreme Court on this sensitive issue,” Guevarra said in a text message to the INQUIRER.

“There are law enforcement issues that we need to address,” he added.

Asked if the DOJ would still appeal the tribunal’s ruling, the Guevarra said he would have to confer with Solicitor General Jose Calida regarding “our way forward.”

He also said he would also meet with officials of the Bureau of Immigration (BI), an attached agency of the justice department, to discuss the effect of the high court’s decision.

In a unanimous vote, all the 13 magistrates agreed to void DOJ Department Circular No. 41 on Tuesday during their annual summer session in Baguio City.

Then Justice Secretary Leila de Lima used the circular to place former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, now a Pampanga representative, under the watch list order of the BI on November 15, 2011.

De Lima’s order barred a wheelchair-bound Arroyo and her husband, Jose Miguel Arroyo, from flying to Hong Kong supposedly to seek medical treatment, and defied a temporary restraining order issued by the SC that allowed Arroyo to leave the country.

Three days later, Arroyo and former Commission on Elections chair Benjamin Abalos were indicted and ordered arrested for electoral sabotage. They were both acquitted for the charge in 2015.

Interestingly, resigned Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II used the same DOJ circular in issuing immigration lookout bulletin orders against known critics of President Duterte’s brutal drug war, among them De Lima and former President Benigno S. Aquino III.

SC spokesperson Theodore Te said the tribunal ruled that there “was no legal basis” for the issuance of the circular, which was ironically signed by Arroyo’s appointee, then Justice Secretary Alberto Agra, on June 7, 2010.

Te said the magistrates pointed out that no law had been enacted “authorizing the secretary of justice to issue hold departure orders, watch list orders or allow departure orders.” /kga