SC asks Senate: Answer petition filed by Ong over his detention

The Supreme Court has requested the Senate to answer the petition filed by Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corporation director Linconn Ong over his continued detention, high court spokesman Brian Hosaka said Tuesday.

Hosaka said the respondents were required to comment on the main petition and the request for a temporary restraining order.

“As per Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo, the respondents in the petition filed by Linconn Ong were required by the Court to file their comment to the main petition and prayer for TRO,” Hosaka said in a message to reporters.

On October 7, Ong, through legal counsel Ferdinand Topacio, asked the SC to order his release from Senate custody.

Named respondents to the petition were the Senate Blue Ribbon committee and its chairperson, Senator Richard Gordon; Senate President Vicente Sotto III; and retired Major General Rene Samonte of the Senate sergeant-at-arms.

In separate statements, Sotto and Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon expressed confidence that the high court will uphold the chamber’s order to detain Ong.

“There are a number of decisions and jurisprudence established from the SC favoring the Senate on that aspect,” Sotto said in a text message shared to reporters.

“I am confident that on the basis of decided cases since Arnault v Nazareno in 1950, the Senate is legally correct in detaining Ong until he answers our questions,” Drilon, a former Justice secretary, said.

Ong has been under the custody of the Senate since September 21 after he was cited in contempt due to his "evasive responses" to the senators' questions regarding the alleged overpriced medical supplies purchased by the government from Pharmally at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic last year. —LBG/RSJ, GMA News