MANILA, Philippines - The Supreme Court (SC) grilled Albay 1st District Rep. Edcel Lagman on Tuesday over his petition seeking to declare the Truth Commission illegal.

Lagman wants the High Court to junk President Benigno Aquino III’s Executive Order (EO) No.1, which seeks to investigate controversies during the administration of then-President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

The SC has received 2 separate petitions questioning the constitutionality of Aquino’s EO.  Louis Biraogo filed the second petition against EO No. 1. 

Fourteen of the court's 15 magistrates said they found deficiencies in Lagman’s petition.

Associate Justice Antonio Carpio said the petition questions so-called quasi-judicial powers granted to the commission while at the same time recognizing that its findings will be merely recommendatory. 

Lagman, however, maintained that the president has no power to create such a body. 

The lawmaker also noted that the commission created by EO will have the powers of an investigative body, and will call for hearings and issue subpoenas. 

He said past commissions created by Arroyo, such as the Melo Commission that probed media and activist killings in 2006 and the Feliciano Commission that probed the Oakwood Mutiny in 2003, were only "fact-finding" in nature. 

In his petition, the House minority lawmaker also cited 43 past truth commissions. 

Associate Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, an Aquino appointee, said all these commissions "dealt with past regimes and none of them struck down.”

Lagman also maintained that the commission will only "duplicate if not demean" the power of the Office of the Ombudsman, which is the constitutionally mandated body tasked to handle graft and corruption charges involving public officials.

Sereno said such a commission can be allowed if "the Ombudsman is not sufficiently independent.”

"The police also do that. It can interview the complainant, and then file a case before the fiscal's [office]. Is that your position then that the police perform quasi-judicial powers?" Justice Roberto Abad said.

Carpio, during his interpellation of Lagman, noted that under Presidential Decree 1416, the president has the "continuing power" to create and re-organize the government -- a decree upheld five times by the High Court.

Associate Justice Arturo Brion was absent during the proceedings. 

The SC has directed all parties to focus their discussions during the oral arguments on the following issues:

- whether EO No. 1 violates the Constitution; 

- whether the implementation of EO No. 1 and the creation of the Truth Commission will result in grave injustice and irreparable damage to petitioners.

The oral arguments will resume on September 14.