Thursday, January 15, 2009 2 SC justices inhibit from Limkaichong case
TWO magistrates of the Supreme Court (SC) tasked to investigate the leakage of an unpromulgated decision in an election case on Wednesday resigned as members of the investigating committee.
But the High Court appeared to be not only battling external efforts to destroy its integrity, as it also has to contend with infighting in the homefront.
SC spokesman Jose Midas Marquez said Associate Justices Consuelo Ynares-Santiago and Antonio Carpio voluntarily inhibited themselves as members of the three-man investigating committee created by Chief Justice Reynato Puno to determine who is liable for the release of what he called a "confidential internal document."
The document even reached one of the litigants, Laguna-based businessman Louis Biraogo, in the election case that he filed with the SC against Negros Oriental Representative Jocelyn Limkaichong.
Santiago and Carpio were replaced by Justices Renato Corona and Conchita Carpio-Morales. They will join Senior Associate Justice Leonardo Quisumbing, who was designated as head of the committee. Quisumbing, Santiago, and Carpio are the three most senior members of the tribunal.
Marquez said that Carpio inhibited from the panel because he was mentioned in the Compliance filed by Biraogo explaining why he should not be cited for contempt of court as to how he got hold of the unpromulgated ponencia of retired Justice Ruben Reyes.
On the other hand, Santiago's inhibition was requested by Reyes because, Marquez said, "he (Reyes) is not comfortable with her."
Another court employee however quoted Morales as saying: "Bakit, ako ba komportable sa kanya? (Why, am I comfortable with him?)" upon learning of Reyes's request for Santiago's inhibition.
Prior to the resignation from the panel, the committee has already held two meetings on the issue.
Meanwhile, Puno was visited by running priest Fr. Robert Reyes who expressed support for the chief magistrate and appealed that the SC be spared from politics.
The Philippine Judges Association, Regional Trial Court of Manila, Metropolitan and City Judges Association of the Philippines, and the Las Piñas City Judges Association also expressed their support for Puno in face of reports saying that the chief magistrate is in danger of being impeached by Congress over the alleged non-promulgation of the Limkaichong case.
Puno, in an en banc resolution, created an investigating committee to determine who were responsible for the breach in the "cloak of confidentiality" of the document and to recommend appropriate actions.
The SC noted that while Biraogo's accusations "are seemingly directed only against the Chief Justice, they actually impute impropriety on the other members of the En Banc for allowing or condoning the acts allegedly attributed to the Chief Justice."
According to the SC, during its session on July 15, 2008, the SC continued its deliberations on the ponencia of Justice Reyes in the consolidated cases involving the proclamation of Limkaichong.
Since no one raised any further objections to Reyes's ponencia, the en banc approved the ponencia with a number of justices saying they were concurring "in the result." Reyes then circulated immediately his ponencia for signature by the justices during the same session.
After the session and during lunch, the Chief Justice noted that seven justices concurred "in the result" of the ponencia of Reyes. Justices Minita Chico-Nazario and Teresita Leonardo de Castro then informed the Chief Justice that they too would concur only "in the result."
"Since nine justices, not counting the Chief Justice, would concur only 'in the result,' the justices unanimously decided to withhold the promulgation of the ponencia of Justice Reyes. It was noted that if a majority concurs only 'in the result,' the ponencia has no doctrinal value," the SC said in its resolution.
Because of this, the SC resolution added, Carpio volunteered to write his "Reflections" on Justice Reyes's ponencia for discussion in the next en banc session on July 22, 2008, where the justices "unanimously decided" to hold oral arguments on these consolidated cases on August 21, 2008. (ECV/Sunnex)
