By Ade S. Fajardo
The Supreme Court has published the individual opinions of the justices who agreed with the majority to deny Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa’s bid for a temporary restraining order (TRO) against his impending arrest.
Five justices dissented. They voted to enjoin the threatened arrest in the meantime that the court is yet to decide on the merits of the petition that essentially challenges the power of the executive department to surrender Bato to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
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Senior Associate Justice Marvic MVF Leonen wrote a concurring opinion to the TRO denial.
He says that the senator is not under restraint. Should he finally be apprehended, Bato’s recourse is habeas corpus, which is the appropriate remedy to challenge restraint on his person.
That is where the ICC warrant of arrest may be determined to be authentic. The lawful cause for restraint is also required to be shown in that proceeding.
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Justice Leonen has some nice words regarding Bato. The senator had occupied the “apex of the institution constitutionally bound to protect life.” However, he is being accused of being “central to the program from which the deaths arose.”
The institution that Bato headed caused or failed to prevent deaths in the course of tokhang. Equity may hardly be invoked to justify an injunction against the purported plan to surrender him to the ICC.
But Bato continues to have legal recourse should he eventually get arrested.
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Justice Leonen hastens that nothing stops Bato from surrendering to his former colleagues in the Philippine National Police.
“Such an act of courage and leadership — the demonstration of which may be looked for from a sitting senator of the republic, who hails from a background of having served as a chief of the Philippine National Police — ultimately expresses that he trusts our legal and judicial system, and is not exclusive of his assertions of his weighty legal questions.”
But two weeks after that challenge was thrown, Bato is yet to surface, get arrested and directly challenge the legality of the restraint upon his person.
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Bato’s flight from the Senate premises may have caused trouble for his fellow senators — Robin Padilla, now Senate President Allan Peter Cayetano, and possibly Pia Cayetano.
Allegations of obstruction of justice are now being pursued by the PNP and the National Bureau of Investigation.
Obviously, Bato’s alternative to judicial relief are not acts of “courage and leadership,” but desertion and flight to parts unknown.
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“Petitioner ran,” quipped Justice Leonen.
“He sought sanctuary among the majority of his colleagues in the Senate within their premises. ‘Nanlaban’ did not happen. He fled shortly thereafter. The senator and former chief of the Philippine National Police is now at large.”
Bato fled when the country was asleep. This does not bode well for his case, which is yet to be decided on its merits.
Is he hoping for regime change? Two years until 2028 and a friendlier government is a long way to go./WDJ