The Supreme Court has "nullified" the 10 September 2021 arrest order issued by the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee led by then-Senator Richard Gordon against executives of the pharmaceutical firm Pharmally.
The SC said, in a decision made last March but only released this week, that the arrest order was made by the Senate panel with "grave abuse of discretion."
The twin petitions were filed by Pharmally executives Lincoln Ong and Michael Yao Hung Ming to question the said order of the committee.
Gordon's panel found them guilty of contempt of the Senate, and ordered Ong's detention, first at the office of the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms, and later on in the Pasay City Jail, while Yao remained at large.
In a 50-page decision penned by Associate Justice Henry Inting, the high tribunal, voting unanimously, said that Congress undoubtedly has the power to conduct inquiries in aid of legislation and to punish for contempt resource persons who give "vague and evasive answers."
However, the Blue Ribbon Committee "failed to accord (Ong and Yao) their rights in the conduct of the proceedings, more in the exercise of its contempt powers," the SC said.
The Supreme Court added that "legislative contempt is essentially criminal or punitive in nature" and "must be accorded stricter due process requirements, such as the opportunity to explain one's side before being penalized."
The decision also said that "the Committee's grave abuse of discretion lay in its precipitate act of citing petitioners Ong and Yang in contempt and ordering their arrests without giving them the opportunity to be heard."
In a statement, lawyer Ferdinand Topacio, one of Pharmally's counsels, thanked the Supreme Court for "truly being the last and most steadfast bastion of justice and the rule of law in our country."
Topacio added that "this recent decision has affirmed our constant cry during the Senate hearing on the Pharmally issue that Senator Gordon has converted the Blue Ribbon Committee during that time into a kangaroo court in order to advance his own political agenda."
He added that "the decision, unanimous as it is, is "a great step forward in curbing the abuses being foisted upon some resource persons who are being forced to testify in Senate proceedings in violation of their fundamental rights."