Unless he thinks he is now a certified celebrity, Supreme Court (SC) Administrator Midas Marquez’s posturing in media strikes me as odd.
Over ANC early this week, the SC executive gamely responded to reports that he is running for senator and questions about his real gender. He also explained ex-SC chief justice Renato Corona’s decision to pare down the budget for SC ceremonies when then Associate Justice Conchita Carpio-Morales retired from the service. Marquez also gave snippets on his ex-boss being kuripot or stingy in explaining why this magistrate doesn’t own a car even if he has P180 million in dollar and peso bank accounts.
To recall, when Corona appeared before the Senate impeachment trial, he and his entourage rode a rented sports utility vehicle (SUV) with a reported stolen plate. A businessman said to own the plate number recognized the registration plate and reported the case to land transportation authorities who subsequently traced the SUV to a car rental company owned by a controversial Chinese businessman.
While reading the news about Marquez’s guesting in the ABS-CBN cable news channel, I was reminded by how news anchor Jessica Soho of the rival network GMA-7 handled the same topic during a studio interview with one of Corona’s defense counsels, Judd Roy. This was less than 48 hours after Corona was sacked, and speculations were rife that he will question the Senate verdict before the Supreme Court.
Roy told Jessica how lawyers for the defense tried to cope with the legal debacle. He maintained the panel worked hard for Corona, sometimes using their own money for sundry expenses like photocopying piles of legal documents. At this, Soho cut the lawyer short, changed the subject but not without suggesting that viewers were not that gullible to believe his tale. After all, it was Corona himself who admitted that he had more than P180 million sleeping in banks.
After Corona accepted his fate, Marquez resigned as SC spokesman, as if to indicate that his function as torotot or drumbeater for the ex-SC Chief Justice was now over.
At the height of the impeachment trial, many sectors, like Akbayan Party-list scored the SC administrator for moonlighting as Corona’s defense counsel. He was perceived to have mobilized court employees to stage vigils and protests and lead court holidays for Corona. The protests were not only limited to the SC offices in Padre Faura, but also spilled out into the streets and in courts outside Metro Manila.
Marquez’s quick response to Corona’s sacking resembles the bizarre support of SC employees to the former SC chief. During the impeachment trial SC employees mouthed the same statements that Corona and Marquez were telling the public in defense of the supposed attack by the Executive against a co-equal branch of the government: judicial independence and political persecution.
But like Corona, they failed to squarely address why he can’t be forthright with his Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN) when it was all that was needed to end the impasse. After Corona got the boot, the mood in Padre Faura swung from “deeply passionate” to normal as if nothing happened. As for Marquez, he was quoted in news reports as saying he can only be removed for “just cause” by the SC sitting en banc.
Well, he is right up to the point on that because Malacañang gave hints that Marquez’s involvement on allegedly questionable procurements and disbursements in the $21.9-million World Bank funding intended for the SC’s Judicial Reform Support Project could just be the “just cause” that he was looking for.
To recall, a WB aide’s memoire had been leaked to the press on the eve of Corona’s impeachment trial. At least $199,000 or roughly P8.6 million had been irregularly disbursed, pointing to “breakdown of controls” in the funding project. While the report is nothing new to the public who is constantly served with stories of corruption by high-profile government officials, the news that the SC has access to foreign funds with Marquez having full control of its approval and disbursement was shocking. Reports said his control over WB funds posed conflict of interest issues prompting the WB to issue an aide memoire to the Philippine government. The WB country manager in Manila did not dispute the authenticity of the supposed leaked reports, but it was all that Akbayan Party-list needed to bring a case against Marquez before the Ombudsman.
If Marquez is visible in the talk show circuit, it could be because he has become interesting copy for his role in the impeachment trial. Or is this his way of trying to fend off what some people see as the handwriting on the wall?