|
Tuesday, November 04, 2003
Cebu lawyers to SC: Punish them
CEBU -- A group of Cebuano lawyers asked the Supreme Court (SC) Monday to declare the second impeachment complaint against Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr. as illegal and unconstitutional.
In a 23-page petition for prohibition and injunction, officers of the University of the Philippines Law Alumni (Upla) Cebu Foundation Inc. want the SC to cite members of Congress in contempt of court for their defiance of the status quo order.
Listed as respondents are House Speaker Jose de Venecia, Senate President Franklin Drilon and more than 80 representatives in the Lower House, led by Reps. Felix Fuentebella and Gilberto Teodoro.
Meanwhile, the Citizens for Judicial Independence (CJI) will hold a grand prayer rally Wednesday in Cebu in support of the Cebuano Chief Justice. No politician will be allowed to speak during the gathering, though.
Oral arguments on the petitions for a temporary restraining order on the impeachment proceedings are scheduled Wednesday at the SC.
The Upla petition is the first suit filed by a group of Cebuanos on the Davide impeachment complaint. Cebu Gov. Pablo Garcia and other veteran lawyers are preparing their own petition.
The governor disagreed with Cebu Rep. Clavel Martinez' contention that the impeachment is constitutional, and that the ban on second impeachment within a year is overruled by the House's constitutional power to draft its own rules on handling impeachment issues.
"My golly, that is funny. She is wrong... They should keep on studying; it is not enough that you're a lawyer or a congresswoman. Little learning is a dangerous thing," the governor said.
Martinez, a former provincial attorney, is among those named to draft the House's comment on the High Tribunal's status quo order that stopped impeachment proceedings against Davide.
"If a law that is passed by both the House and the Senate and signed by the President could not be above the Constitution, how much less a mere rule of the House?" he asked.
The governor added that it is wrong to say that the High Court cannot intervene in the affairs of Congress. He cited at least two cases wherein the Supreme Court nullified an act of Congress.
Records of the Constitutional Commission, which drafted the 1987 Constitution, also show that an impeachment is initiated by the act of filing, he added.
Provincial Board Member Victor Maambong, who is helping draft a separate petition, also said only the SC has the right to decide on constitutional questions.
Maambong, a lawyer, said the balance of power has exceptions, and that it includes "flagrant, capricious and glaring violation of the Constitution".
The debate on the impeachment controversy has reached the Internet, too.
A ranking official of the Philippine Judicial Academy (Philja) issued a statement to defend Davide in the SC's website www.supremecourt.gov.ph.
Fr. Ranhilio Callangan Aquino, Philja Academic Affairs Office head, said the chief justice has not violated any law and that the use of the Judiciary Development Fund (JDF) as the basis of the impeachment is meant only to add credibility to an essentially political gimmick.
"If the allegation were true, judicial employees throughout the country would have risen as one to support Mr. (Felix William) Fuentebella and company. They have not. Rather, the Philippine Judges Association, the Philippine Trial Judges League, and associations of court employees have expressed unqualified support for the Chief Justice. Whose agenda is all this?" Aquino wrote in an article posted at the site.
The Philja serves as a training school for justices, judges, court personnel, lawyers and aspirants to judicial posts.
Rep. Fuentebella and 85 other congressmen signed the impeachment complaint against Davide, who was accused of misusing the JDF that is meant for the court employees' special allowances and projects. The JDF comes from docket and processing fees.
A Commission on Audit report, however, found no misappropriation in the disbursement of the JDF.
Upla Cebu wants the Supreme Court to issue a restraining order to prevent Congress from further acting on the impeachment complaint, specifically the forwarding of the Articles of Impeachment to the Senate.
Among other things, Upla Cebu officers said Congress "has no power, authority and jurisdiction to initiate, entertain or hear" a second impeachment complaint against Davide within a year.
They also said that Congress has no authority to interfere with the fiscal matters of the judiciary, specifically the disbursement of the JDF, even under the guise of impeachment proceedings.
"While Congress itself holds the power of the purse, it may not interfere with the allocation and use of the resources of the judiciary without defeating (its) fiscal autonomy enshrined in the Constitution," the petition said.
Lawyer Goering Paderanga, Upla Cebu president, said the petition they filed at 3 p.m. Monday will most likely be consolidated with at least seven other petitions filed at the High Court.
At least three of the 60 members of Upla will be at the SC Wednesday when the High Court hears the oral arguments. LCR/JPM/KNR of Sun.Star Cebu
(November 4, 2003 issue)
Write letter to the editor. Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board. Click here. |
|
|
|
 |
| click
to comment on this article or discuss it with other readers |
[return to top]
[home]
|
|
Court workers sing, dance for transparency