6/7/2020
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may be employed by such Court or officer.
....
. . . Holding an accused in a criminal case within the reach of the Courts by
preventing his departure from the Philippines must be considered as a valid
restriction on his right to travel so that he may be dealt with in accordance
with law.[24] (Citation omitted)
Moreover, the power of courts to restrict the travel of persons out on bail is an incident
of its power to grant or deny bail. As explained in Santiago v. Vasquez:[25]
Courts possess certain inherent powers which may be said to be implied
from a general grant of jurisdiction, in addition to those expressly conferred
on them. These inherent powers are such powers as are necessary for the
ordinary and efficient exercise of jurisdiction; or essential to the existence,
dignity and functions of the courts, as well as to the due administration of
justice; or are directly appropriate, convenient and suitable to the execution
of their granted powers; and include the power to maintain the court's
jurisdiction and render it effective in behalf of the litigants.
Therefore, while a court may be expressly granted the incidental powers
necessary to effectuate its jurisdiction, a grant of jurisdiction, in the absence
of prohibitive legislation, implies the necessary and usual incidental powers
essential to effectuate it, and, subject to existing laws and constitutional
provisions, every regularly constituted court has the power to do all things
that are reasonably necessary for the administration of justice within the
scope of its jurisdiction. Hence, demands, matters, or questions ancillary or
incidental to, or growing out of, the main action, and coming within the
above principles, may be taken cognizance of by the court and determined,
since such jurisdiction is in aid of its authority over the principal matter,
even though the court may thus be called on to consider and decide matters
which, as original causes of action, would not be within its cognizance.
Furthermore, a court has the inherent power to make interlocutory orders
necessary to protect its jurisdiction. Such being the case, with more reason
may a party litigant be subjected to proper coercive measures where he
disobeys a proper order, or commits a fraud on the court or the opposing
party, the result of which is that the jurisdiction of the court would be
ineffectual. What ought to be done depends upon the particular
circumstances.
Turning now to the case at bar, petitioner does not deny and, as a matter of
fact, even made a public statement that she had every intention of leaving
the country allegedly to pursue higher studies abroad. We uphold the course
of action adopted by the Sandiganbayan in taking judicial notice of such fact
of petitioner's plan to go abroad and in thereafter issuing sua sponte the
hold departure order, in justified consonance with our preceding disquisition.
To reiterate, the hold departure order is but an exercise of respondent
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