The Supreme Court’s Spokesman, Court Administrator Midas Marquez just announced that the Temporary Restraining Order against the enforcement of the watch-list order against the former President remains in “full force and in effect.” This has prompted many to ask how that pronouncement will affect, or be affected by, the information for electoral sabotage very recently filed with the Pasay RTC.
The quick and easy answer is that it won’t.
The TRO only seeks to prevent the enforcement of the WLO, the validity of which is being questioned. In other words, it does not seek to determine whether GMA should be allowed to leave the country or not, only whether the means by which she has so far been prevented from doing so (i.e., via a watch list order) is valid.
The information for electoral sabotage, on the other hand, directly answers the question “Should the former President be allowed to leave?” With the case for a non-bailable offense pending, it would seem that the answer is no. Hence, the COMELEC’s plea for the issuance of a hold-departure order.
As the SC Spokesman rightly – and quite repeatedly – said, the TRO is a separate issue from the case pending in the Pasay RTC. The Pasay RTC, he said, should rule on the issues before it as it sees fit.