They should have just said “No.”
At least two lawmakers from the prosecution team that impeached Chief Justice Renato Corona believe that retired Supreme Court (SC) Justice Antonio Eduardo Nachura Sr. and incumbent Justice Arturo Brion should have turned down an invitation to be godfathers at the wedding of a daughter of former Rep. Jose Villarosa.
“It was faulty judgment for the two to become the ‘kumpadre’ of someone they had a hand in acquitting (or may be acquitting),” said Isabela Rep. Giorgidi Aggabao, one of 10 lawmakers who succeeded in obtaining the guilty verdict against Corona.
Villarosa and six farmers were convicted by a lower court and meted out the death penalty for the murder of Michael and Paul Quintos—sons of Ricardo Quintos, a political rival of Villarosa. The brothers were gunned down at a birthday party in Mamburao, Occidental Mindoro, in December 1997. The case is pending in the Supreme Court.
“I believe that in order to avoid any sense of impropriety, whether imagined or not, they should have not accepted the invitation to be godparents. Once you become an SC justice, you become ‘judicially entombed,’” said Quezon Rep. Lorenzo Tañada III, a spokesperson of the House prosecution team.
Robert Quintos, a brother of the victims, has loudly protested the “indecency” of Nachura and Brion mingling with the accused, and raised questions on the “propriety of all past and future recommendations and decisions with regard to Mr. Villarosa.”
The Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) under Nachura had recommended to the Court of Appeals that Villarosa (husband of incumbent Occidental Mindoro Rep. Ma. Amelita Villarosa, a close ally of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo) be acquitted.
The case is on appeal in the SC Second Division of which Brion is a member.
But Nachura did not see any conflict of interest in his closeness to the Villarosas and his recommendation on their cases.
“The fact that the Court of Appeals, also on the basis of the same evidence on record, acquitted some and convicted other accused in effect validated the OSG position on the matter,” Nachura said in a letter defending his decision to stand as godfather to Villarosa’s daughter.
Aggabao, however, said that while their actions may be seen as unsavory, these were still within the boundaries of the lawyer’s moral code.
“I agree with the view that it is not unethical behavior which may be actionable. It does raise a doubt on their sense of delicadeza (propriety), which is unfortunate, but I don’t think that is sufficiently wrong to breach ethical standards among judges,” said Aggabao.