Petition For Contempt of Court
Petition For Contempt of Court
Petition For Contempt of Court
SUPREME COURT
Manila
-versus-
G.R. NO.
FOR: CONTEMPT
REAR
ADMIRAL
ERNESTO
C.
ENRIQUEZ (in his capacity as the
Deputy Chief of Staff for Reservist
and Retiree Affairs, Armed Forces of
the Philippines), The Grave Services
Unit
(Philippine
Army)
and
GENERAL RICARDO R. VISAYA (in
his capacity as the Chief of Staff,
Armed Forces of the Philippines),
DEFENSE
SECRETARY
DELFIN
LORENZANA,
and
HEIRS
OF
FERDINAND
E.
MARCOS,
SR.
represented by his surviving spouse
Imelda Romualdez Marcos and
legitimate children Imee, Irene and
Ferdinand Jr.
Respondents.
x------------------------------------------------------------x
through
Counsel,
respectfully
state
the
5.
On 23 August 2016, the Honorable Court issued a Status
Quo Ante Order for twenty (20) days prohibiting all parties from
burying the dictator Marcos, Sr. at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.
6.
Oral arguments were held on 31 August 2016 and 07
September 2016.
7.
After the oral arguments, the Honorable Court extended
the Status Quo Ante Order until 18 October 2016 and again until 08
November 2016.
8.
On 08 November 2016, the Honorable Court rendered a
Decision in the said case, the dispositive portion of which reads:
WHEREFORE, PREMISES CONSIDERED, the
petitions are DISMISSED. Necessarily, the Status
Quo Ante Order is hereby LIFTED.
9.
The dispositive portion of the Decision did not indicate
that the same is immediately executory.
10. On 11 November 2016, Petitioners filed with the
Honorable Court an Extremely Urgent Motion to Hold in Abeyance
the Interment of the Late Dictator, Human Rights Violator and
Plunderer Ferdinand Marcos Sr. In the Libingan ng mga Byani
Pending the Resolution of Petitioners Motion for Reconsideration and
the Finality of the Decision. To date, Petitioners are unaware of any
official action on the same.
11. On 13 November 2016, Petitioners Counsel learned that
its office received a copy of the Decision on 11 November 2016.
Hence, under the Rules of Court and the Internal Rules of the
Supreme Court (A.M. No. 10-4-20-SC), Petitioners have fifteen (15)
days from receipt of their copy of the Decision, or until the 26th of
November 2016 within which to move for the reconsideration of the
said Decision.
12. The assailed Supreme Court decision is, therefore, not
yet final and executory as the period of fifteen days provided under
both Rules has not yet elapsed.
13.
At mid-morning of 18 November 2016, information and
reports were running fast that the late dictator, human rights violator
and plunderer is about to be buried at noon of the same date. It was
only late in the morning that the National Capital Regional Police
Offices (NCRPO) Chief Superintendent Oscar Albayalde made an
official announcement confirming such information.
14. At around past 11:30 in the morning, the media reported
that the remains of the late dictator, flown from Laoag, Ilocos Norte,
arrived at the Libingan ng mga Bayan. Burial rites were conducted
shortly thereafter.
15. Considering the initial media blackout, the Filipino people
was kept in the dark as to the actual burial and the rites given to the
late dictator. However, Respondent Imee Marcos posted a same-day-
edit video1 showing that indeed burial rites with full military honors
were held for the late dictator.
16. The other circumstances of the burial which were later
disclosed and the public statements of Respondents can very well be
taken judicial notice of this Honorable Court, including the temporary
news blackout, initial denials, honor guards, 21-gun salute, taps,
flower confetti shower, tight security and elaborate transportation
arrangements, and the pomp and pageantry.
17. These accoutrements necessarily requiring expenditure of
public funds and resources could never be regarded as private and
simple as claimed by Armed Forces of the Philippines spokesperson
Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla, among others.
CAUSE OF ACTION
THE HASTY, SHADY AND TRICKY BURIAL OF THE REMAINS OF
THE LATE DICTATOR AT THE LIBINGAN NG MGA BAYANI
DURING THE PENDENCY OF THE CASE CONSTITUTES
CONTEMPT OF COURT
18. True to his character proven abundantly even by this
Honorable Court in previous rulings, Marcos, Sr.s burial at the
Libingan ng mga Bayani was made deceitfully and dishonestly
without any moral compunction. When the official announcement and
confimation was made, the nation was in shock and disbelief over
such bizarre scheme.
19. The cunning and brazen disregard and mockery by the
Marcos family and the public Respondents of the legal process is
evident in the manner by which the burial was conducted.
20.
http://www.rappler.com/nation/152840-marcos-hero-burial-video-same-day-edit
4
22.
Rule 71.
City of Manila vs Court of Appeals G.R. No. 100626 November 29, 1991.
6
because the motion serves as the movant's vehicle to point out the
findings and conclusions of the decision which, in his view, are not
supported by law or the evidence and, therefore, gives the trial judge the
occasion to reverse himself. In the event that the trial judge finds the motion for
reconsideration meritorious, he can of course reverse the decision. In the
absence of an appeal from the decision, as the motion for reconsideration is
still unresolved, the execution ordered by the RTC cannot be properly
considered as execution pending appeal. All references to the assailed order
as an order of execution "pending appeal" are mislabeled. The need to resolve
first, or better still deny, petitioner's motion for reconsideration before the
RTC could grant the discretionary execution becomes more imperative in
the light of the rule that executions pending appeal are frowned upon.
Without preempting the resolution of petitioner's motion for
reconsideration one way or the other, a perusal thereof shows that
petitioner had raised questions and issues which were not thoroughly
discussed and passed upon in the RTC decision. The RTC should have
resolved these issues first before allowing the discretionary execution of
its judgment if only to preclude any speculation that the order of execution
"pending appeal" was issued in haste. Said failure constitutes grave abuse of
discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction on the part of the RTC judge.
x x x The good reasons allowing execution pending appeal must constitute
superior circumstances demanding urgency that will outweigh the injuries or
damages to the adverse party if the decision is reversed. (emphasis added);
Rizal Security and Protective Services v. Maraan, G.R. No. 124915, February 18,
2008. Without receipt by the petitioners of the notice and copy of the Order
dated 24 January 1996, the same has not yet become final and executory and
the Writ of Execution issued pursuant thereto on 12 March 1996 was
premature and without legal basis. This renders the Writ of Execution fatally
defective and, thus, null. (emphasis added)
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much less the party immediately concerned, should have the final say
on the validity or lack of it of one's course of conduct. Centuries of
reliance on the judicial process repel such a notion.13 In the case at
bar, the Marcos family in connivance with the States security forces
the Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces of the
Philippines took the law into their own hands by judging for and by
themselves whether the former President as Dictator and Butcher is
worthy of burial at the LNMB. As a result, the Respondents shortcircuited the process and disregarded and disrespected the pending
special civil actions in this Court.
43. Third, the Respondents violated the doctrine of law
against forum shopping. While the special civil actions are still
pending in this Court because the period to file a motion for
reconsideration of this Courts assailed Decision has not yet lapsed
the Marcos family connived with the State security forces to topple
and subvert the rule of law in this country. In other words, even as a
remedy is still extant at this Court, the Marcos family resorted to other
venues and other remedies, both administrative and executive in
character, to obtain the ultimate result they want to achieve. This is
textual and purposive forum-shopping.
44. As explained in Grace Park International Corporation
vs Eastwest Banking Corporation,14 there is forum-shopping
when party asks different courts and/or administrative agencies to
rule on the same or related causes and/or grant the same or
substantially the same reliefs, in the process creating the possibility of
conflicting decisions being rendered by the different fora upon the
same issues.15 Here, the Respondents resorted to both this Court
and the administrative agencies in charge of the LMNB, and on the
basis of the textual reading of the definition of forum-shopping, there
is forum-shopping.
45. Purposively,
as
mentioned
in
Disini
vs
16
Sandiganbayan, there is forum-shopping when there is trifling with
the courts and their processes and the possibility of conflicting
decisions being rendered by two courts and opening the system to
the possibility of manipulation.
46. In the case at bar, by conniving with the State security
forces and the civilian administrators of the LNMB, while the Petitions
on the Marcos burial in the LNMB are still pending with this Court, the
Marcos family and their cohorts, herein Public Respondents as well
Philippine Association of Free Labor Unions v. Salvador et al., G.R. No. L29471, September 28, 1968.
14
G.R. No. 210606 July 27, 2016.
15
Emphasis added.
16
G.R. No. 175730 July 5, 2010.
13
12
as all those who attended the sordid event -- unfairly doubled their
chances of securing as in fact they have secured their goal of burying
Mr. Marcos in the LNMB. Indeed, [t] his misdeed amounts to a
wagering on the result of the Respondents twin devious strategies,
and shows not only their lack of faith in this Court in its evenhanded
administration of law but also their expression of disrespect if not
ridicule for our judicial process and orderly procedure.17
47. If these rules and precedents are faithfully observed in all
other cases in judicial and even quasi-judicial bodies, then with
greater reason should they be respected in a case of such
transcendental importance and of far-reaching repercussions such as
this. Otherwise, it will send the confusing and perilous signal that
henceforth all decisions or judgments that are not yet final and
executory can now be immediately executed and pre-empted
peremptorily by the unilateral act of the winning party even without
waiting for the mandatory period to file a motion for reconsideration or
appeal, as the case may be.
48. The Marcoses have thus violated established and
elementary doctrines of law in the process of employing
contemptuous tactics bordering on insolence.
49. Ironically, even this Court was also a victim of the Marcos
dictatorship during Martial Law. Hence, the Honorable Court Itself
stood its ground in the case of Galman vs Sandiganbayan18 where
It invoked Its institutional integrity as a court of law, justice and equity,
hence:
The Supreme Court cannot permit such a sham
trial and verdict and travesty of justice to stand
unrectified. The courts of the land under its
aegis are courts of law and justice and equity.
They would have no reason to exist if they were
allowed to be used as mere tools of injustice,
deception and duplicity to subvert and suppress
the truth, instead of repositories of judicial
power whose judges are sworn and committed
to render impartial justice to all alike who seek
the enforcement or protection of a right or the
prevention or redress of a wrong, without fear or
favor and removed from the pressures of
politics and prejudice. More so, in the case at
bar where the people and the world are entitled
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18
PRAYER
WHEREFORE, premises considered, it is respectfully prayed of
the Honorable Court that the instant Petition be GRANTED and that
the Honorable Court:
(1)find the Respondents GUILTY of indirect contempt of court;
(2) impose a FINE and require the RESTITUTION of all public
funds used in the burial; and
(3) DETAIN the Respondents until they have satisfactorily
cleansed themselves of the contemptuous act or until such
further orders of the Court.
Other reliefs, just and equitable, are likewise prayed for, without
prejudice to the prayers Petitioners will ask in their Motion for
Reconsideration in G.R. No. 225973 .
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED, 21 November 2016, Quezon
City for the City of Manila.
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EDRE U. OLALIA
IBP No.1026436-1/25/16-RSM
PTR No. 2353568C- 1/21/16- Quezon City
Roll of Attorneys No. 36971
MCLE Compliance No. V-0019457 - 04/22/2016
EPHRAIM B. CORTEZ
IBP No. 1026437 - 1/25/16 Isabela
PTR No. 2353569C - 1/21/16- Quezon City
Roll of Attorneys No. 41366
MCLE Compliance No. V-0019328 - 04/22/2016
MINERVA F. LOPEZ
IBP LR No. 011325 - 01/04/13- Pangasinan
PTR No. 2131515 01/04/16 - Quezon City
Roll of Attorneys No. 60637
MCLE Compliance No. V -0016666 - 04/4/16
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JOSALEE S. DEINLA
IBP No.1026439-1/25/16/ Quezon City
PTR No. 2353571C- 1/21/16- Quezon City
Roll of Attorneys No. 64967
MCLE Compliance No. V-0019343 - 04/22/2016
ODINA E. BATNAG
PRT No. 2323687/Jan. 18, 2016-Quezon City
IBP No. 1027072 I 1 Feb 2016 I Baguio-Benguet
Roll of Attorneys No. 64286
MCLE Compliance No. V-0011885 11/11/2015
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Copy furnished:
OFFICE OF THE SOLICITOR GENERAL
134 Amorsolo St.,
Salcedo Village, Makati City
REAR ADMIRAL ERNESTO C. ENRIQUEZ
Deputy Chief of Staff for Reservist and Retiree Affairs
Armed Forces of the Philippines Reserve Command
Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City
GENERAL RICARDO R. VISAYA
AFP Chief of Staff
Camp Aguinaldo
Quezon City
HON. DELFIN N. LORENZANA
Secretary of National Defense
Camp Aguinaldo
Quezon City
REP. IMELDA R. MARCOS
Room218 North Wing
House of Representatives
IBP Road, Quezon City
EXPLANATION
Copies of this Petition were sent to the parties through registered mail
due to time and personnel constraints.
MINERVA F. LOPEZ
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