SC justices defend female colleague in Sereno-JBC tangle
A majority of the Supreme Court justices have circled their wagons to defend their female colleague, Teresita Leonardo-De Castro, from the slings and arrows of the Judicial and Bar Council, chaired ironically by Chief Justice Lourdes Sereno.
The JBC, with Sereno abstaining, has sought to inhibit Leonardo-De Castro from the high tribunal’s review of its earlier decision rejecting the JBC’s controversial “clustering” of court nominees whose list and even rankings the JBC forwards to Malacanang for the sitting president to choose from.
Instead of her having inhibited, Leonardo-De Castro was even retained by her colleagues to again be the ponente, the writer, of the new resolution rejecting the JBC’s motion for reconsideration.
“It is unfortunate the JBC stooped so low in casting aspersion on the person of this ponente instead of focusing on sound legal arguments to support its position,” Leonardo-De Castro said in a resolution released earlier this week.
“There is absolutely no factual basis for the uncalled for and unfair imputation of the JBC that the ponente harbors personal hostility against the JBC presumably due to her removal as consultant.”
“The ponente’s removal ( along with Associate Justice Presbitero Velasco Jr.) as consultant was the decision of Chief Justice Sereno, not the JBC,” LeonardoDe Castro said, adding it was an “affront” to the high tribunal that sitting justices were replaced by retired chief justices.
“The evident intention of such move was to keep the Supreme Court in the dark on the changes in rules and practices subsequently adopted by the JBC, which, to the mind of this ponente, may adversely affect the exercise of the supervisory authority over the JBC vested upon the Supreme Court by the Constitution.”
Save for Bienvenido Reyes, who was on leave, and, Sereno, nine magistrates signed and sustained LeonardoDe Castro’s decision finding unconstitutional the JBC’s clustering scheme.
On the other side of the fence, only three JBC members, whose identities were not disclosed, signed the motions for intervention and reconsideration and only four signed another motion for reconsideration.
The JBC website lists only four regular members of the council, namely: retired SC Justice Angelina Sandoval-Gutierrez, Maria Milagros Fernan-Cayosa, Jose Mejia and Toribio Ilao Jr.
In addition to former chief justices Hilario Davide Jr., Artemio Panganiban and Reynato Puno, deputy court administrators Raul Villanueva and Jenny Lind Aldecoa-Delorino are also listed as JBC consultants.
Classified as ex-officio members are Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II, Sen. Richard Gordon and Rep. Reynaldo Umali.
In the Supreme Court, a colleague of Sereno in the University of the Philippines and likewise a P-Noy appointee, Marvic Leonen also voted along with LeonardoD e Castro, but with some qualification.
“I do not find any reasonable basis to cluster nominees in this case, where the law created simultaneous new vacancies for a collegial court,” Leonen said in a separate opinion. “However, I reiterate that the Judicial and Bar Council is not mandated to submit its revised internal rules to this Court for approval.”
Another P-Noy appointee, Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa, voted along with the majority, but asked for the deletion from the dispositive portion of their earlier decision declaring “the clustering of nominees by the Judicial and Bar Council (as) unconstitutional.”
A chapel within a law firm
In what could be a first in Philippines, the law firm headed by UST Law Dean Nilo Divina is building, holy smokes!, a chapel right within its enlarged offices in Makati.
According to the grapevine, the house of worship, a 90-square-meter-oasis, is apparently designed to boost the litigious fervor of the growing band of litigators for Divina Law.
The chapel is being made possible because Divina Law has obtained the go-signal from the landlord, no less than SM heiress Teresita Sy, to lease the other half of the eight floor of Pacific Star building.
It is most likely the planned chapel would be dedicated in honor of the British lawyer and philosopher, St. Thomas More, rather than in the name of another patron saint for lawyers, the lesser known Ives Helori, whose chosen crusade might not cut it out in today’s rough-and-tumble corporate world.
Known in France as Saint Ives of Brittany, the second patron saint for lawyers was an advocate for the poor and a crusader for lost causes during the 13th century whose adage was supposed to be “a lawyer yet not a crook.”
Heard through the grapevine
Metrobank chairman Arthur Ty, president Fabian Dee and three other top Metrobank officers can expect this year to receive a 12 percent pay increase, which should boost their combined compensation to about P214.4 million for all five of them.
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