Finally, now that a warrant of arrest against GMA has been issued, is the possibility for her to travel definitively closed? I shall not enter into the issue of whether the Pasay Regional Trial Court has jurisdiction over the case. I have heard it argued that, since GMA is a public officer (don’t forget that she is a member of Congress) and the offenses for which she is accused were allegedly committed when she was president, the case should go to the Sandiganbayan. As I said, I am not prepared to navigate in that sea because the statutory law on the jurisdiction of the Sandiganbayan is perhaps the most frequently amended law.
But assume that the warrant of arrest is valid. Assume further that she is charged with a non-bailable offense. Does that close all possibility of foreign travel? We know that denial of bail is not automatic. The prosecution still has to prove in a proper hearing that the evidence of guilt is strong. That has not yet been done.
Assume next that the evidence of guilt is shown to be strong and that therefore bail is not available as a matter of right. At the risk of sounding like the Old Testament patriarch bargaining with God about sparing the city of Sodom from fire and brimstone, may a judge still grant bail and even give to an accused permission to travel? On the basis of recent Supreme Court decisions as late as 2007, that is not outside the realm of possibility. But considering the temper of the times, that may be outside the realm of Sodomic bargaining probability!
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