Three lawyers asked the Supreme Court (SC) on Monday, March 2, to compel the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee (SBRC) to release to the public the copy of its draft partial report on the investigation into the multi-billion-peso anomalies in the government’s flood control projects.

The petition was filed by lawyers Eldrige Marvin Aceron, Sikini Labastilla and Purificacion Bartolome-Bernabe who asked the SC to issue a temporary restraining order (TRO) or status quo ante order (SQAO) to preserve the original version of the draft.

Sought to be preserved is the draft which, the lawyers said, have been signed by Senators Juan Miguel Zubiri, Joseph Victor “JV” Ejercito, and Sherwin Gatchalian.

Aceron had earlier filed an ethics complaint against Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero on the ₱30 million campaign donations from the owner of Centerways Construction and on the ₱16.67 billion in contracts awarded to the firm by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).

The three lawyers told the SC they filed the petition after their request for a copy of a draft report was denied last Feb. 23 with the SBRC invoking the deliberative process privilege to prevent the “chilling effect on frank deliberation within government bodies.”

However, they pointed out that the privilege can no longer be invoked after SBRC Chairman Sen. Panfilo Lacson disclosed the report’s contents to the public on numerous occasions.

They cited official statements and media interviews that the draft report recommended plunder and other charges against the named sitting senators and was based on testimonial and documentary evidence gathered during the hearings.

Earlier published reports stated that the draft SBRC report recommended the filing of plunder and other criminal charges against Sens. Escudero, Joel Villanueva and Jinggoy Estrada, former senator Bong Revilla, and House of Representatives members Zaldy Co and Mitch Cajayon-Uy.

Also, the published reports stated that Senators Zubiri, Ejercito and Gatchalian have withdrawn their signatures after the draft report was leaked to the public last February 3.

The petition pointed out that the public has the right to information under Article III, Section 7 of the 1987 Constitution.

The petitioners told the SC: “This provision confers the right to information as a personal constitutional right of every citizen, to be asserted affirmatively against the state. Petitioners are Filipino citizens. The SBRC letter denied their direct, written, formally filed petition for access to a specific document. Their injury is not abstract or speculative – it is concrete, complete and personal.”

They also said that “… findings of a public Senate investigation into multi-billion-peso flood control corruption, with recommendations of plunder charges against sitting senators is unambiguously a matter of public concern within the meaning of Article III, Section 7….”

At the same time, the petitioners asked the SC to order Senators Zubiri, Ejercito, and Gatchalian to submit written explanations for withdrawing their signatures from the draft report, and to direct the SBRC to furnish a certified true copy of the draft to the Senate ethics committee for use in pending ethics complaints against Escudero and Ejercito.