Lawyers Condemn Use of Legal Processes to Cover Up Crimes

Article 27—Irrelevance of official capacity

1. This Statute shall apply equally to all persons without any distinction based on official capacity. In particular, official capacity as a Head of State or Government, a member of a Government or parliament, an elected representative or a government official shall in no case exempt a person from criminal responsibility under this Statute, nor shall it, in and of itself, constitute a ground for reduction of sentence.

2. Immunities or special procedural rules which may attach to the official capacity of a person, whether under national or international law, shall not bar the Court from exercising its jurisdiction over such a person.

Our obligation under the Vienna Convention on Treaties to observe the Rome Treaty in good faith trumps the unwritten ‘presidential immunity’ principle. The obsolete medieval doctrine of the “king can do no wrong” has been largely eroded mainly because kings actually do a lot of wrong and should not be allowed to hide behind it. Pres. Arroyo has been hiding behind executive privilege and presidential immunity as a shield against charges of human rights violations, electoral fraud and graft. Its about time that our courts strip her of the very mechanism that spawned impunity in the country.

Continuous violation of the rights of others

NUPL condemns the continuous blatant violations committed by executive officials against the rights of others. The filing of a perjury case against Violet Lozada, the wife of ZTE witness Jun Lozada is another example of the use of legal processes to harass witnesses. While Violet Lozada was charged with perjury for merely exercising her right to file a habeas corpus petition on behalf of her husband, executive officials such as Usec. Gaite, Sec. Lito Atienza and others are not subject to the same treatment for lying during the Senate investigation. The fact that Violet Lozada ’saw’ her husband the night before she filed the habeas corpus petition does not settle the issue of custody and threats against the life of Jun Lozada, and Violet has all the right to seek recourse from the courts.

The harassment of rallyists is another persistent violation of people’s rights. In the case of Valmonte vs de Villa, the Supreme Court only allowed visual search in checkpoints and prohibited the authorities from stopping vehicles and ordering people to get down. The act of inspecting buses, ordering passengers to get down and stopping rallyists from exercising their constitutional right to expression is not only a criminal offense on the part of the police but also an illegal use of government office and resources to harass critics of Pres. Arroyo in the same way that the DOJ and the Ombudsman are being used to preempt the serious investigation and prosecution of public officials involved in the corruption that went with the ZTE contract.

The NUPL condemns the continuous use of legal processes and institutions in efforts to derail serious investigation on crimes committed by public officials and suppress the truth. The use of public offices and resources to violate the constitutional rights of the people to assemble, to petition government for redress and to information is totally unacceptable and officials involved in these acts are criminally liable under the law. We ask members of the legal profession to contribute their legal skills and organize a Committee Against Impunity so that the proper charges can be filed against ALL public officials, including the police and the military, who may be responsible not only for violating constitutional rights but also for the cover-up of these crimes. We should barrage legal institutions, no matter how compromised, with criminal complaints and force both the institutions and the perpetrators to contend with this legal counter-offensive. We reiterate our demand for Pres. Gloria Arroyo to desist from the use of the office of the Presidency for her personal protection and shield her and her officials from accountability for acts constituting as violations of the Constitution and Philippine laws.