Tapes conspiring to cheat in the election.
18
The court struck down the violations of
the freedom of speech and freedom of assembly, and the warrantless arrests carried
out under the emergency declaration, but characterized the declaration itself as
within the valid exercise of the “calling-out” powers of the President.^19
Finally, journalists sued for damages after they were forcibly hauled to a military
camp during a military standoff with rebel soldiers. The rebels had taken refuge at
the prestigious Manila Peninsula hotel, but government troops could not lay siege
until the journalists had vacated the area. However, the journalists would not cede
their posts, claiming a duty to report the news. The police contended that they were
at best a nuisance, and at worst rebel sympathizers protecting their comrades.
The journalists were herded by the police, “handcuffed” with plastic grocery
bindings, brought to a military camp to be identified, and finally released.
The government equivocated on whether the journalists were merely forcibly
evacuated from the siege, or were actually subjected to arrest.
20
The trial judge dismissed their claim without hearing on the merits, saying they
had disobeyed a generic penal law punishing “disobedience to a person in authority”:
The right of the plaintiffs as members of the press as guaranteed under
the Constitution was not violated and trampled upon by the respective
acts of the defendants. [The order to vacate the premises was] lawful and
appeared to have been disobeyed by...the plaintiffs, when they inten-
tionally refused to leave the hotel premises for which an appropriate
criminal charge [for “resistance and disobedience to a person in author-
ity” under] the Revised Penal Code, which is applicable to all, including
the media personalities, could have been initiated against them.^21
The fourth emergency was in 2009 ,upheldbythecourt,^22 when Arroyo finally and
candidly invoked her martial-law powers in response to the massacre in the Muslim
island of Mindanao, where fifty-seven civilians were gunned down by a local warlord.^23
Failure of Congressional oversight
Arroyo neutralized Congress as an independent check on executive power through
the deft exercise of her budgetary power of the legislators’ “pork barrel,” her
(^18) Davidv.Arroyo, G.R. No 171396 (May 3 , 2006 ). Note: the author was counsel for the
petitioner in this case.
(^19) See also F.T. Hilbay, “Tyrannosaurus Text and the doctrinal slip: PP 1017 and the proble-
matics of executive legislation,” in F.T. Hilbay,Unplugging the Constitution(Quezon
City: University of the Philippines Press, 2009 ), p. 35.
(^20) Tordesillasv.Secretary of Interior, Civil Case No 08 - 086 , Regional Trial Court of Makati
City Branch 56 (June 20 , 2008 ).
(^21) Ibid. (^22) Salongav.Executive Secretary, G.R. No 190307 (March 20 , 2012 ).
(^23) Presidential Proclamation 1959 , Proclaiming a state of martial law and suspending the
privilege of the writ of habeas corpus in the province of Maguindanao except for certain
areas (December 4 , 2009 ).