Ex-AFP comptroller Garcia seeks SC help vs detention

(Updated 6:24 p.m.) Claiming he is being illegally confined, former military comptroller Carlos F. Garcia has questioned before the Supreme Court his detention at the New Bilibid Prison, where he was sent after his arrest last month. Garcia, through his lawyers, filed last Friday a 62-page petition for the issuance of habeas corpus, an extraordinary judicial measure requested by persons claiming to be illegally or arbitrarily detained. "Petitioner submits that his arrest and detention at the National Penitentiary is a case of illegal confinement or detention by which he is deprived of liberty, or in the alternative, by which the rightful custody over his person is withheld from the military facility entitled hereto," said Garcia. He also asked the SC to nullify President Benigno Aquino III's approval of the military court martial's guilty verdict and the two-year sentence meted out on him. "After due notice, comment and judicial determination, the petition... be given due course and thereafter an order be issued to annul and set aside the Sept. 9, 2011 Confirmation of Sentence for being patently illegal," Garcia said. The habeas corpus writ is directed to a custodian, ordering him to present the detainee before the court at a designated time and place. The court will then deliberate on whether the petitioner was lawfully detained. In this case, Garcia is asking the high court to direct respondents to justify his imprisonment, which he said was illegal. Named respondents in the petition are Executive Sec. Paquito Ochoa Jr., the Office of the President, Defense Sec. Voltaire Gazmin, Armed Forces of the Philippines chief of staff Eduardo Oban Jr., and Bureau of Corrections Director Gaudencio Pangilinan. Garcia was arrested last month after President Aquino approved the court martial's findings that Garcia was guilty of misdeclaring his Statement of Assets and Liabilities for the years 2002 and 2003, and for also being a green card holder who acquired a permanent residence in the United States while serving in the military. “It is the conduct unbecoming of an officer and a gentleman for failing to disclose/declare all his existing assets in his 2002 and his 2003 Statement of Assets and Liabilities and for holding the status of an immigrant, permanent resident of the United States of America thereby causing dishonor and disrespect to the military profession," said Gazmin. In his petition, Garcia said: "It is most respectfully submitted that the repudiation by the Office of the President of petitioner's full service of sentence must be considered grave abuse of discretion, and the arrest and confinement of petitioner, which were effected pursuant to the confirmation of sentence, must be deemed patently illegal, thereby warranting the writ of habeas corpus." 'Illegal confinement' Garcia also told the SC that the respondents acted beyond their jurisdiction and have committed grave abuse of discretion when President Aquino's confirmation of his two-year sentence was carried out. He added that President Aquino's approval of the sentence was "without any legal basis." He said it was illegal to detain him at the national penitentiary because he has already served the two-year sentence when he was preventively confined while the court martial heard his case. "Even assuming for the sake of argument that the penalty of two years confinement may be imposed in addition to the penalties of dismissal and forfeiture, the sentence had been fully served in view of petitioner's preventive confinement which exceeded the two-year sentence, and the Office of the President has no authority to repudiate service of sentence, for which reason petitioner's arrest and confinement despite full service of sentence is illegal...," said Garcia. Garcia's plea Garcia then asked the Supreme Court to issue the writ of habeas corpus directing Pangilinan to produce Garcia "at the time and place that it [Supreme Court] may specify." The former comptroller also asked the high court to set a hearing for the petition and examine the cause of his imprisonment. If the SC finds his imprisonment as lawful, Garcia then said the SC should order his confinement to a military facility like the Camp Crame Custodial Center, or the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP) Detention Center. — KBK, GMA News