Wheels of justice slow down as SC goes on recess till June

Any pending appeal before the Supreme Court will have to wait until after May.

The Supreme Court went on recess this week and will not convene for an en banc (full court) session until after the May 13 national and local polls.

The 15 magistrates, who last held an en banc session on April 16 in Baguio City, will be on recess until June 4, according to Supreme Court spokesman Theodore Te.

Until then, any appeal on pending election-related cases can no longer be tackled by the Supreme Court justices in a full court session.

This includes the appeal filed by ousted acting Mayor Homer Saquilayan on the Supreme Court’s decision last week to reinstate Imus, Cavite, Mayor Emmanuel Maliksi. The high court had reversed its original decision declaring Saquilayan as the duly elected mayor of Imus.

The high court will likely no longer tackle a pending petition asking for a postponement of the party-list elections.

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) did not file a motion for reconsideration of the Supreme Court’s decision allowing political parties and groups not representing marginalized and unrepresented sectors to participate in the party-list elections.

The Court had reinstated 52 party-list groups which the poll body earlier disqualified.

The poll body also did not file a motion for reconsideration of the Supreme Court’s decision to revoke Comelec’s airtime limit for political ads.

New lawyers take oath

Because of that decision, Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes announced he was thinking of resigning. He later said he would stay put but said he may ask the President to appoint him ambassador to an Eastern European country after the elections.

But all 15 justices are expected to show up for the oath-taking ceremony for 949 new lawyers.

The 949 law graduates who passed the 2012 bar examinations will take their oath before the Supreme Court in a special en banc session on Wednesday at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City.