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Thursday, June 12, 2003
SC ready to meet impeach raps - Davide
MANILA -- The Supreme Court (SC) will take "appropriate actions" in connection with the impeachment charges filed against magistrates of the High Court, Chief Justice Hilario G. Davide said on Wednesday.
"We have to wait for a copy of the impeachment charges and I will submit it to the court because the issue is not just the individual but the court itself, the institution. So we will come out with a statement in behalf of the court," Davide said in a chance interview Wednesday during celebrations marking the 102nd anniversary of the SC.
Davide who just came from a trip to South America claimed "sinister moves" linked to the scheduled 2004 elections are behind the impeachment raps.
This is the first public statement Davide has made since lawyers of former President Joseph E. Estrada filed the controversial charges against the SC in Congress.
Estrada, through his lawyers, wants Davide, President Arroyo, and other Supreme Court Justices to testify before the Sandiganbayan on the plunder case against him.
Meanwhile, Senate President Franklin Drilon called the move a delaying tactic and "absolutely unnecessary."
According to Drilon, Estrada's group is out to create a spectacle that would eventually delay the resolution of his trial until the next election with the wishful hope that the next administration would be sympathetic to him.
The complaint has no legal basis and is only a "political move" by Estrada's camp to malign the SC justices and destabilize the Macapagal administration, Drilon said.
In his speech to mark the SC-sponsored launching of a book on the life of the late Chief Justice Roberto Concepcion, Davide said that the filing of the charges underscored the "acrimony in the political debate caused in no small part by the jockeying for position in the 2004 elections and sinister moves to destroy an institution which is the last bulwark of democracy and the guardian of the rule of law and of the constitution."
Concepcion, a noted libertarian during the presidency of the late strongman Ferdinand E. Marcos, resigned 50 days before his scheduled retirement out of a sense of propriety.
Earlier in the day, lawyer Alan Paguia, appearing before a newsman's forum hosted by the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP) at the Manila Hotel, said Davide should be held liable for administering the oath to Arroyo.
Paguia, in part, said Davide knowingly violated the constitution through his actions.
Asked how he feels about the charges, Davide said he "would not make any conclusion right now until (he is) able to see (the complaint).
"Everything is played up in the tri-media so I have to see the complaint myself," he added.
During his speech at the SC session hall, Davide opined that "the success and failure of a nation is not dependent exclusively upon laws, we cannot overlook the transcendental role of the human element."
In apparent reference to the SC's predicament, Davide said the "darker side of the human element is coming out."
"A great deal depends on the individual to whom the reins of government is entrusted," Davide added.
Retired SC justice Sabino R. de Leon, who was also present at the book launching, said his participation in Edsa Dos was to support Davide's decision to administer the oath of office to then vice-president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
"It was a historical event," he said.
De Leon, a presiding magistrate of the Sandiganbayan before he was appointed to the SC by Estrada, claimed the defenses being raised by Paguia is moot and academic being two years late.
"He is brilliant. Only he wrote it two years late," De Leon said, referring to Paguia's defenses.
Former solicitor general Estelito P. Mendoza, who was also a guest at the event, declined to comment on the merits of Paguia's legal strategy but said this is an "interesting and challenging time for the judiciary."
Mendoza was part of the Estrada legal team during the impeachment trial before the senate
Another official, Court Administrator Presbitero Velasco, declined to comment on the merits of the case pending before the Sandiganbayan but said the court will continue to "weed out undesirables...and scalawags."
During the affair, Davide and Associate Justice Josue Bellosillo unveiled statues of two former SC chief justices, Cayetano Arellano and Jose Abad Santos.
Arellano was appointed by the American occupation forces under Sen. Elwell Otis on May 29, 1899 to head the SC's Spanish precursor, the Audencia, which was temporarily replaced by a military court during the first days of American occupation.
Abad Santos, on the other hand, was the magistrate during the Japanese occupation. The Imperial Army executed him shortly after he was captured on May 2, 1942 in Lanao del Sur. BP
(June 12, 2003 issue)
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