JBC SHORTLIST FOR REPLACEMENT OF JUSTICE B. L. REYES COMPULSORILY RETIRING ON 6JULY2017

FROM : JBC grills CA justice slammed by Alvarez over Ilocos Norte row Ina Reformina, ABS-CBN News Posted at Jun 19 2017 03:56 PM "they could not recall transactions involving allegations of misuse of tobacco excise tax amounting to P66.45-million in the purchase of mini trucks, mini cabs, and second-hand buses."  _House Committee on Good Governance and Public Accountability  XXX Associate Justice Stephen Cruz was asked by retired Supreme Court (SC) Associate Justice Angelina Sandoval-Gutierrez, JBC Executive Committee chairperson, why his division issued the writ. Cruz insisted he was merely doing his job. "To determine really if the detention was legal, we wanted the bodies presented to the court together with the person detaining them and determine whether it is legal," he said. "But you ordered the release, that means you determined that the detention was illegal. Why did you issue the writ if you have yet to determine [whether the detention is legal or not?]" asked Gutierrez. "Your honor, please, that was pursuant to a case: Enrile vs Salazar, where persons subject of a writ of habeas corpus, while the merits are being determined, can be released on bail," Cruz said. Cruz, along with Associate Justices Edwin Sorongon and Nina Antonino-Valenzuela of the Special Fourth Division, ordered the detained employees released on bail. Pedro Agcaoili, chair of the bids and awards committee, and provincial planning and development officer; Evangeline Tabulog, provincial budget officer; Josephine Calajate, provincial treasurer; Eden Battulayan, provincial accountant; and provincial treasurer's office staff Genedine Jambaro and Encarnacion Gaor have been detained since May 29 for telling the House Committee on Good Governance and Public Accountability they could not recall transactions involving allegations of misuse of tobacco excise tax amounting to P66.45-million in the purchase of mini trucks, mini cabs, and second-hand buses. The vehicles had been distributed to different barangay chairmen for use of tobacco farmers and other agricultural processes as a post-harvest facility, such as in transporting produce from farms to markets. xxx