Garcia stays in prison after habeas corpus plea denied

Convicted ex-Gen. Carlos Garcia will stay in prison after the Supreme Court refused to grant his petition for habeas corpus. Garcia sought his release by claiming that his detention is illegal. In his plea. Garcia argued that his detention at the national prison “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." The SC, in a statement released on Friday, said its third division issued a resolution stating that, “Habeas Corpus does not lie where the petitioner has the remedy of appeal or certiorari." The third division also said “the writ of habeas corpus cannot be availed of if an individual’s liberty is restrained through some legal processes." “As such, the writ cannot be used to directly assail a judgment rendered by a competent court or tribunal which, having duly acquired jurisdiction, was not deprived or ousted of its jurisdiction through some anomaly in the conduct of the proceedings," the SC explained. Garcia, former comptroller of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, had also filed a petition for certiorari, in which he asked the Supreme Court “to annul and set aside the Confirmation of sentence dated September 9, 2011 by the Office of the President which was served on petitioner upon his arrest on September 16, 2011." That sentence stemmed from Garcia's conviction by a general court martial for violating two articles of the Articles of War in 2005. President Benigno Aquino III confirmed the sentence. Garcia was arrested and then detained at the National Penitentiary. The court directed Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr and Secretary of National Defense Voltaire T. Gazmin, and other respondents to comment within 10 days from receipt of that petition for review. Garcia is accused of plunder before the Sandiganbayan, the country's anti-graft and corruption court. Last Oct. 6, Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales "manifested" before the Sandiganbayan through a position paper that the anti-graft court should set aside the ruling that barred the Office of the Solicitor General from intervening in the case, nullify the approval of the Garcia deal, and hold a full trial on the plunder case against Garcia, his wife Clarita, and children Ian Carl, Juan Paulo and Timothy Mark. — ELR/HS, GMA News