House Bill No. 5111

Congressman Edcel Lagman, 1st District-Albay, has proposed in this Bill that only the courts should be allowed to issue hold departure orders and other travel restrictions. The rationale behind this proposed bill, says Congressman Lagman, is that - "A watchlist order has been perjoratively likened to a rouges' gallery, a roll of infamy and a scroll of criminals whose movements have to be monitored to avert flight from justice. Arbitrary inclusion in the watchlist order is a virtual incarceration by innuendo and conviction by publicity. The power to bar a person from exercising his or her constitutional right to travel as stated in Article III Section 6 of the 1987 Constitution should not be granted to a partisan government official. This authority or jurisdiction should not be exercised by or delegated to agencies headed by presidential political appointees who succumb to partisan pressures or defer to political importuning at the expense of civil liberties."