House asked to comment on Imee’s plea to stop probe on tax misuse

Ilocos Norte Governor Imee Marcos.INQUIRER PHOTO / GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE

The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the House of Representatives to respond to the petition of Ilocos Norte Governor Imee Marcos and the six provincial officials which sought to stop the congressional inquiry on the capitol’s alleged misuse of tobacco excise tax.

Named respondents in the petition were House Majority leader and Ilocos Norte 1st district Rep. Rodolfo Fariñas, House committee chair and Surigao del Sur 2nd district Rep. Johnny Pimentel and House sergeant-at-arms Roland Detabali. They were required to submit their comment to SC in 10 days.

In their petition filed last July 13, Marcos and the Ilocos 6 asked the SC to stop the House probe on alleged anomaly in the purchase of P66.45-million worth of motor vehicles by the provincial government.

They also sought issuance of a writ of Amparo “to protect the actual and threaten violations and infringement of their constitutionally-guaranteed rights to liberty and security of person” and immediately remand the case to the Court of Appeals (CA) as provided under court rules.

Petitioners cited the “prolonged interrogations, indefinite detention, coerced confessions, presumption of guilt and torture” employed by respondents in earlier hearings.

They also urged the high court to assume jurisdiction on the habeas corpus case filed by the six previously detained employees after the appeals court justices sought guidance from the Supreme Court.

Congress also threatened to cite the justices for contempt for acting on the case even if it is not within their jurisdiction.

The high court was supposed to tackle the case in regular session last Tuesday, but three magistrates decided to inhibit from the petition – including the justice to whom the case was assigned.

The case was originally raffled to Associate Justice Diosdado Peralta but he recused himself from participating in the case for being a relative of one of the respondents, House majority leader and Ilocos Norte 1st district Rep. Rodolfo Fariñas.

Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno and newly appointed Associate Justice Andres Reyes Jr. also inhibited from the case after issuing a joint statement calling on the House committee on good government and public accountability to recall its show cause order against the three Court of Appeals justices who ordered the release of the “Ilocos 6.”