Tuesday, August 07, 2007 (Philippines)

If she can climb the capitol roof, ride a horse, dive into the ocean deep, she must know how to use the floor mop. And she showed the Capitol janitor how to do it more efficiently and gracefully. The public was amused but apparently not the sidelined janitor.Sun.star photo/Amper Campaña) IN WHAT could be another “scam” inside the Marcelo Fernan Hall of Justice, the Supreme Court (SC) directed several employees of the judiciary, including a retired judge, to show cause why no “disciplinary action” should be imposed upon them for “illegally acting on inordinate” number of petitions for voluntary rehabilitation of drug dependents. In a resolution dated last June 12, the court en banc required retired Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 5 Judge Ireneo Lee Gako Jr. to explain why he acted on 518 petitions for voluntary rehabilitation of drug dependents from 1998 to 2006, despite the absence of a raffle and even if his court had no jurisdiction over them. Petition of such nature should only be acted upon by drug courts, the SC said. Branch 5 is considered a court of general jurisdiction. [full story]