Solon quizzes SC over TRO on Cagayan governor case

SAGIP party-list Representative Rodante Marcoleta on Thursday questioned the Supreme Court (SC) over its issuance of a temporary restraining order (TRO) against a contempt and detention order of a House committee.

During the budget deliberations of the House Committee on Appropriations, Marcoleta asked the Supreme Court if it was disregarding a landmark case, citing a previous ruling wherein the Supreme Court refused to order the release of a petitioner.

Marcoleta said the House issued a contempt and detention order against Cagayan Governor Manuel Mamba for his repeated failure to attend a congressional inquiry, refusal to issue a travel authority, and for supposedly maligning members of the committee in a radio program.

“Ang hinihingi lang namin dito, habang ginagawa po namin ang aming constitutional duty, wala naman po sanang TRO. You could have received his petition without issuing a TRO,” Marcoleta said.

(What we are asking for here is while we are doing our constitutional duty, there should be no TRO. You could have received his petition without issuing a TRO.)

“That’s the whole point, sir,” he added.

Court Administrator Raul Villanueva said the SC has always upheld the power of inquiry of Congress.

When Marcoleta asked if this makes the TRO unnecessary, Villanueva said he would be the last to assail the decision of the court as a former judge.

Villanueva later said the SC issued the TRO as there was a prayer for a TRO in Mamba’s petition. He said the SC also did not focus on any particular allegation or statement on Mamba’s petition and instead looked at its totality.

The Court Administrator also stressed that the issuance of a TRO does not mean that the previous rulings of the Court have been abandoned.

“This is a preliminary or provisional remedy that is something that the Supreme Court can look into. Likewise, it’s not the final disposition of the case,” Villanueva said.

Meanwhile, Ph.D. Party List Representative Michael Romero urged the House to revisit the rules and clarify the matter being constitutional in nature.

Mamba was cited in contempt on August 17 after he repeatedly failed to attend the inquiry of the House joint committee on public accounts as well as suffrage and electoral reforms on alleged illegal expenditures of the local government during the 2022 campaign period.

The governor appeared before the House panels on August 24. Later in the afternoon, the SC released a TRO against the contempt and detention order issued against Mamba.

The House then released Mamba hours later, after he made a Statement of Undertaking that he would withdraw his TRO.

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court issued a show cause order against Mamba to explain why he should not be held in contempt for alleged improper conduct.—LDF, GMA Integrated News