Lagman wants power of President, DOJ to bar foreign travel removed

An ally of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo at the House of Representatives wants to remove the power of the President and the Department of Justice (DOJ) to bar accused persons from leaving the country through a hold departure order. House Minority Floor Leader Edcel Lagman filed House Bill (HB) 5111 seeking to grant courts with the exclusive jurisdiction to issue hold departure orders. The bill was filed days after Arroyo, now a congresswoman representing the second district of Pampanga, was placed on travel watch list in connection with the plunder cases filed against her. Lagman, in his measure’s explanatory note, said the power to bar a person to exercise his or her constitutional right to travel—as stated in Article III, Section 6 of the 1987 Constitution—should not be given to a “partisan" government official. “This authority or jurisdiction should not be exercised by or delegated to agencies headed by presidential political appointees who succumb to partisan pressures or defer to political importuning at the expense of civil liberties," the lawmaker from Albay said. HB 5111 gives the courts the sole power to determine if an accused should be prohibited from traveling abroad based on “competent and compelling evidence." The measure also states that a person should only be barred from traveling abroad for three reasons, as stated in the Constitution: if he or she is a threat to public safety, national security or public health. The bill will have to under committee hearings and will have to be approved by both the House of Representatives and the Senate before it can be signed into law by the President. Watch list order Section 7 of HB 5111 also proposes that a watch list order “shall not be the basis for holding or preventing the travel of an accused... unless there is a hold departure order issued with finality by the proper court." The same provision also directs the DOJ to ensure that an accused has already undergone preliminary hearing before placing him or her on the travel watch list. “The indiscriminate inclusion of a person’s name in the watch list order even prior to the filing of a formal complaint... besmirches such a person’s reputation, convicts before trial and criminalizes alleged acts without due process," Lagman said. DOJ Secretary Leila de Lima announced last Tuesday that she has placed Arroyo under Immigration watch list due to three plunder cases against the former President pending before her department. This means that Arroyo will have to secure a permit from the DOJ before she can exit the country. De Lima explained that the power to place a person on the immigration watch list was granted to the DOJ chief by Memorandum Circular No. 17, which was issued even before she assumed office last year. Lagman came to Arroyo’s defense last Wednesday, saying that the watch list order had no basis since the plunder cases are still in their initial stages. Arroyo is currently facing three plunder charges before the DOJ, accusing her of involvement in the anomalous sale of an airport property in Iloilo; misuse of Overseas Workers’ Welfare Administration (OWWA) funds, and diversion of fertilizer funds to her campaign kitty in 2004. Arroyo’s husband, Jose Miguel “Mike" Arroyo, was also placed on the watch list two weeks ago for his supposed involvement in the allegedly anomalous purchase of helicopters by the Philippine National Police. The former First Gentleman has challenged the DOJ order before the Supreme Court. - KBK, GMA News