SC urged to order release of Senate report on flood probe
Three lawyers on Monday filed a petition before the Supreme Court (SC) to order the Senate blue ribbon committee to release the draft of its original report on the investigation into flood control anomalies.
Eldrige Marvin Aceron represented his fellow lawyers Sikini Labastilla and Purificacion Bartolome-Bernabe in filing the petition for mandamus (a writ ordering the performance of a specified official act or duty) and certiorari (judicial review) in the high court in Manila on Monday morning.
No longer confidential
“The prayer here is for the Supreme Court to issue a mandamus to the Senate to release the original report, as signed by Senator Risa (Hontiveros), Senator Kiko (Pangilinan), and Senator Bam (Aquino),” Aceron said in an ambush interview.
The lawyer added that if the report is not released immediately, it must at least be preserved for later disclosure.
“Senator (Panfilo) Ping Lacson has been talking about that report. They have been talking about that for a long time—Feb. 3 onwards. What is confidential? There’s nothing confidential anymore. That should be released to the public,” stressed Aceron.
He also said they sent a letter requesting the release of the report, but the committee refused to do so.
On Feb. 4, Lacson, blue ribbon committee chair, said the draft report recommended the filing of plunder and other criminal charges against Senators Jinggoy Estrada, Joel Villanueva, and Francis Escudero, among others, for their alleged involvement in flood control anomalies. The three senators have denied the allegations.
Lacson said the draft was routed to senators on Feb. 3 and that this was signed by Senators Hontiveros, Pangilinan, Aquino, Juan Miguel Zubiri, JV Ejercito, and Sherwin Gatchalian.
Zubiri, Ejercito, and Gatchalian later withdrew their signatures. The document needs 11 signatures before it is submitted for plenary discussion.
‘Correcting’ the wording
On Feb. 10, Lacson said the Senate blue ribbon committee was “correcting” the wording of the report. Instead of recommending the filing of plunder and other criminal charges against Escudero, Estrada, and Villanueva, the committee would now recommend a “preliminary investigation.”
Still, “the version may change, but not the substance,” Lacson said.
But according to Aceron, such corrections only prove the importance of releasing the original draft to the public.
“How are these changes being made? What was the deliberation here? What are the reasons they’re doing this? They are not disclosing that on record. We have the right to know. We are the public,” he said.
The basis of their petition, he added, is Article III, Section 7 of the 1987 Constitution—the people’s right to information on matters of public concern.
The petition for full disclosure requests the release of the full draft report unredacted. It also seeks to preserve all versions, including the originally signed draft, before the three withdrawals; require Zubiri, Ejercito, and Gatchalian to explain in writing why they withdrew; furnish a certified copy to the ethics committee for the pending complaints; and order Ejercito, the chair of the Senate ethics committee, to inhibit from all proceedings involving Escudero.
Not subject to mandamus?
Sought for comment, Lacson told the Inquirer in a Viber message that the draft report was not subject to mandamus.
“What I know, and this is in consultation with a recently retired SC justice and an incumbent CA (Court of Appeals) justice, is that matters that are ministerial in nature are not subject to mandamus and/or certiorari,” Lacson said.
“This, aside from the fact that the draft partial committee report, unless adopted in plenary with all the amendments and finally approved by the body, is just a draft,” he added.
On Feb. 5, Senate President Vicente Sotto III also said that if “the other committee members have not even read or seen it, it cannot be made public.”
Aceron, in October last year, filed an ethics complaint against Escudero over the P30 million donated by flood control project contractor Lawrence Lubiano to the lawmaker’s 2022 election campaign. —WITH A REPORT FROM INQUIRER RESEARCH
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