TRO miracle

Just when her camp thought that the Supreme Court’s issuance of a Temporary Restraining Order had cleared the way for former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to leave the country ostensibly to seek medical attention abroad, something happened that makes one think there are forces in the universe that help keep the justice system in place.

That is how it looked to me when it was reported that the SC’s Nov. 15 TRO had become inoperative owing to the failure of the Arroyo camp to comply with all the conditions laid down by the SC directive: a cash bond of P2 million each for Mr. and Mrs. Jose Miguel Arroyo, a requirement that they report to Philippine consulates in the countries they will visit and the appointment of a legal representative to receive subpoenas, orders and other legal processes on their behalf while abroad.

The tribunal released a copy of the order on Nov. 15 at about 6:30 p.m. but Arroyo lawyers were already in the SC offices around 5 p.m. to put up the cash bonds. There can be no doubt about the power of the Arroyos, but in this particular case, it is very revealing. Even before the Department of Justice received a copy of the SC directive, the Arroyos were already booking flights to Singapore. As for compliance with the conditions of the TRO, this was not a problem as their battery of lawyers had ironed out everything, or so it seemed.

GMA and her husband Mike Arroyo have a battery of pricey lawyers led by Marcos era justice minister and solicitor general Estelito Mendoza. His clientele is a virtual who’s who including three former presidents: Ferdinand Marcos, Erap Estrada and now Gloria Arroyo. High-profile businessmen like Eduardo Cojuangco and Lucio Tan, not to mention former first lady Imelda Marcos also come knocking on Mendoza’s legal firm. Presidents accused of plunder, with one having been convicted of the capital offense but later pardoned are highlights of Mendoza’s legal experience.

But for all their legal brilliance and cunning, Mendoza and his partners failed to deliver. Instead of producing a legal document that appoints Arroyo lawyer Ferdinand Topacio as the former First Couple’s representative “to receive subpoenas, orders and other legal processes on their behalf while they are abroad,” the instrument submitted to the SC had Arroyo designating Topacio “to produce summons or receive documentary evidence” on their behalf.

Associate Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno spotted the “clerical error,” which later became the basis for her dissenting opinion.

The preparation of such a document is so simple and basic that it could be accomplished by any of the lawyers’ office secretaries in less than an hour, but I guess all hell broke loose when the SC decision came out. Then again, condition no. 2 was not tucked in fine print but spelled out explicitly that to overlook it is, to me, a miracle in itself.

The legal blunder has rendered the TRO inoperative and the SC warning to cite Justice Secretary Leila de Lima for contempt has become ineffective. Moreover, the dire constitutional crisis scenario that Arroyo allies are suggesting owing to the DOJ’s defiance of the SC order have fallen flat on their faces. The political confusion resulting from the supposed constitutional crisis has been overcome by the lawyers’ slip-up.

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I almost fell off my seat when VERA Files reported that “contrary to the announcement of Supreme Court Spokesman Midas Marquez that the High Court voted 8-5 reiterating the temporary restraining order on the Watch List Order of Justice Secretary Leila de Lima issued on former President Gloria Arroyo and her husband,” the tribunal actually voted 7-6 declaring the Nov. 15 TRO inoperative owing to the failure of the Arroyos to satisfy all the conditions set by the court.

According to the Nov. 18 VERA Files, the seve who voted that the TRO is out of order were Senior Justice Antonio Carpio, Associate Justices Sereno, Bienvenido Reyes, Estela Perlas-Bernabe, Jose Mendoza, Martin Villarama and Roberto Abad. The six who sustained the TRO were Chief Justice Renato Corona, Presbitero Velasco Jr., Arturo Brion, Diosdado Peralta, Lucas Bersamin and Jose Perez.

Marquez has been chided by Sereno for arrogating unto himself the duty of interpreting the SC action on the TRO, but for him to say that the directive is still in effect despite the SC vote declaring it inoperative amounts to misleading the public.

The SC’s image has been tainted by perceptions that Chief Justice Renato Corona is a puppet of the Arroyos, having been appointed by the former president a few months before she stepped down from Malacañang. Now comes VERA Files suggesting that Marquez twisted the results of the SC vote on the TRO. If the report is accurate, this is something that even the SC cannot take sitting down.