Supreme Court spokesperson Jose Midas Marquez INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
Supreme Court Administrator Jose Midas Marquez on Monday said he was ready to face the accusations of abuse and corruption lodged against him by the Akbayan party-list group in the Office of the Ombudsman.
In a press conference, Marquez said he had yet to receive a copy of the Akbayan complaint, nor had the Ombudsman asked him to file a comment or a reply.
He said the extent and limits of the Ombudsman’s jurisdiction over him was a “legal issue,” adding, “I don’t know exactly how to answer at the moment. All I’ve been receiving are media reports.”
He said that in administrative matters, only the Supreme Court had jurisdiction over him, adding that “in criminal matters, there is an issue of whether or not a criminal case can prosper ahead of an administrative case. I guess that will have to be determined also.”
The Office of the Court Administrator was created in 1975 by President Ferdinand Marcos through Presidential Decree No. 828 to help the Supreme Court accomplish its constitutional duty to administer the courts and their personnel.
The court administrator “may be removed or relieved for just cause by a vote of not less than eight justices of the Supreme Court.”
In his letter to the Ombudsman, Akbayan party-list Representative Walden Bello said Marquez “crossed the line” between being a representative of the high court and being Chief Justice Renato Corona’s “right-hand man” as a private spokesperson and defense counsel for the impeachment trial.
Akbayan also raised the matter of Marquez’s participation in the World Bank-funded Judicial Reform Support Project. Bello noted that an aide memoire of the World Bank had said that Marquez’s appointment as court administrator, head of its public information office and chair of the JRSP had led to a “breakdown in internal controls.”
The aide memoire that was leaked to the press also noted unauthorized expenditures of $199,000 or P8.6 million.
With regard to the JRSP, Marquez said the Supreme Court’s Project Management Office “is presently answering the aide memoire of the WB point for point.” Jerome Aning