MANILA, Philippines — Controversial contractor Pacifico “Curlee” Discaya II will not be released from Senate detention after his petition for a writ of habeas corpus was denied by a court in Pasay City on Thursday for lack of merit. Judge Melvin Cydrick Bughao of the Regional Trial Court Branch 498 in Pasay City also dismissed Discaya’s allegations of grave abuse of discretion against the Senate. In his petition filed before the Pasay court last October 8, Discaya named as respondents Senate President Vicente Sotto III and Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo Lacson in his capacity as chairman of the Blue Ribbon Committee, and the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms. “The matter raised in the petition alleging grave abuse of discretion committed by respondents, not being an issue prosper in the instant case, is deemed severed from the petition and dismissed without prejudice for being a misjoined cause of action,” the court said in its ruling. “As a court of law, this Court is bound to observe the statutory and procedural limits of its powers – it cannot bend the law to constrict or expand the scope of its inquiry in any given case. As part of the judiciary, it must remain consistent in observing the metes and bounds of its authority since it is relied upon to interpret the law. It would be the height of irony if courts are cavalier in obeying the very laws and rules they are tasked to interpret,” Bughao said. Discaya was detained at the Senate after he was cited in contempt by the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee on September 18 for lying about the absence of his wife, Sarah, during a hearing on anomalous flood control projects. The Discaya couple on Wednesday said they are no longer cooperating with the Independent Commission for Infrastructure, citing that they invoked their right to self-incrimination.