Sereno: Judiciary housecleaning painful but necessary

Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno: Housecleaning. Photo by RYAN LEAGOGO/INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines–A day after the Supreme Court dismissed Sandiganbayan Associate Justice Gregory Ong for violations of the judiciary’s code of conduct, Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno said cleansing the ranks of the judiciary was necessary.

“We have to go through this process. We have no choice but to go through housecleaning, even if it’s painful to some of us,” she said.

“…[T]he transformative effect of these small incremental steps will be such that, eventually, we can feel that the country is proud of what we are doing. Our people will again have belief in government and Filipinos can finally believe that justice being guaranteed them by the Constitution is not but part of mythology but is actually a living reality,” she said.

Lawyer Harry Roque said Ong “should have been fired long ago,” given his record of offenses.

“I am happy, though, even if his firing was belated. It should serve as a warning to hoodlums in robe that their days are numbered,” Roque said.

Ong was removed from the antigraft court for his links with Janet Lim-Napoles, the alleged brains behind the P10-billion pork barrel scam.

The high court found Ong liable for “fraternizing” with Napoles when his Sandiganbayan division handled a graft and malversation case filed against the businesswoman and several others for the delivery of subpar Kevlar helmets to the Philippine Marines.

Sereno commented on Ong’s dismissal after speaking at a promotional event for the envisioned Continuous Trial System, where she stressed the need for “incremental steps” to reform the judiciary, primarily efforts to speed up the trial system, so as to “set a gold standard in public service.”

For Sereno, the bottom line is clear: To make the country proud of its judiciary.

Enablers

“We are enablers. We are not obstructionists… This is about human lives being made better,” she said.

Sereno spoke at the close of the event that drummed up interest in the Continuous Trial System, where 26 volunteer pilot courts from the cities of Makati, Manila and Quezon would begin daily trials for 10 selected priority cases.

The system seeks to reduce the length of trial from the current average of three to five years to 90 days, or three months.

“This is not about the Chief Justice or the Supreme Court. This is not about judges. This is all about the men and women whose lives you are helping by making sure the judicial system aids them in seeking redress for their grievances, and not seen as an obstacle in their pursuit of happiness,” said the Chief Justice.

The event gathered justices of the Supreme Court, Court of Appeals, Sandiganbayan, Court of Tax Appeals, lower court judges, prosecutors and development agencies.

Sad development

For Sandiganbayan Presiding Justice Amparo Cabotaje-Tang, the dismissal of a colleague was a sad development.

“Actually after the decision, I’ve not met with the justices of the Sandiganbayan. But, of course, being a colleague in the Sandiganbayan, you feel sad for Justice Ong,” said Tang, who was among those who attended the event on Wednesday.

Tang was a classmate of Ong at San Beda Law School. She remembered Ong as “palabiro” back in college.

The magistrate, among those whose division handles a plunder and graft case involving the pork barrel scam, said the high court’s ruling on Ong “will have a strong effect” on the entire judiciary.

“It gives a very strong message. The Sandiganbayan has not officially received the Supreme Court decision. So we don’t actually know what the facts are, how the court has reached its decision leading to his dismissal,” Tang told reporters.

“So we go back to the basics, what it says in the Constitution, that a public office is a public trust. All public officials and employees must be accountable at all times to the people,” she said.

Right signal

Associate Justice Presbitero Velasco Jr., among the five dissenters in the ruling, gave a brief response when asked about the decision. “Everything we do is for the good of the judiciary and the entire country,” he said.

Court of Appeals Presiding Justice Andres Reyes Jr. said officials of the judiciary “just have to work harder.

Top lawyers lauded the high court ruling.

Vicente Joyas, president of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, said the ruling sent a clear message: “The Supreme Court sent the right signal. Nobody is indispensable when the issue is integrity and honesty in the judiciary. The act of the Supreme Court is very laudable.”

Several Catholic bishops welcomed the decision of the Supreme Court to dismiss Ong.

“It is good to know and witness that nobody is above the law,” Cubao Bishop Honesto Ongtioco told reporters.

Ongtioco said he believed that if someone was guilty of wrongdoing, he should face the consequences of his actions.

For his part, Malolos Bishop Jose Oliveros said it was just right that Ong was axed from the antigraft court. But he lamented that those who were expected to fight corruption, like Ong, were themselves the perpetrators.

“It is sad that those who are supposed to fight corruption are themselves guilty of it,” said Oliveros.

Marbel Bishop Dinualdo Gutierrez said the high court’s decision against the 61-year-old Sandiganbayan justice was “just.”

No effect on other cases

The Sandiganbayan maintained that Ong’s dismissal had no legal effect on the cases being handled by the antigraft court.

Ong was the chair of the Sandiganbayan Fourth Division that was hearing several high-profile graft cases, including the criminal complaints against former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and other public officials over the scuttled $329-million National Broadband Network deal with Chinese telecommunications giant ZTE.

The division was also trying the graft charges filed against former Philippine National Police Director General Avelino Razon Jr. and other senior police officials in connection with the alleged ghost repairs of police light armored vehicles.

Acting chair

Renato Bocar, the antigraft court’s executive clerk of court, said Associate Justice Jose Hernandez would be the acting chair of the Fourth Division while another justice would be designated temporary member of the division.

Being the senior member of the division, Hernandez will automatically be the permanent chair of the Fourth Division once Ong’s dismissal becomes final, according to Bocar.

Bocar said Associate Justice Alex Quiroz would replace Hernandez as senior member of the division, being the most senior among the junior associate justices.

“There will be no disruptions in the trial of cases in the Fourth Division. (Ong’s dismissal) will have no legal effect on the pending cases being heard by the court,” Bocar said.

The clerk of court said President Aquino would appoint a new justice to succeed Quiroz as junior member of the Third Division.

Bocar said the Supreme Court’s decision was “self-executory” and that there was no need for Presiding Justice Tang to convene the court en banc to implement Ong’s dismissal.

Not immediately final

Before his ouster, Ong, 61, was the most senior among the 14 associate justices of the antigraft court. He was named by then President Joseph Estrada to the Sandiganbayan on Oct. 5, 1998.

Ong became the first justice of the special court to be dismissed from the service since it was created by a Marcos-era edict on June 11, 1978.

In an earlier interview, Bocar said the dismissed justice may still file an appeal in the Supreme Court within 15 days.

He said Ong may “voluntarily vacate his office and refrain or desist from performing (his) functions as an associate justice of the Sandiganbayan.”

“The ruling of the Supreme Court on the case of Justice Ong, while immediately executory, is not immediately final. So he still has the opportunity to file a motion for reconsideration if he so desires,” Bocar told reporters.

Editors’ Note. The headline of this story has been further edited, to reflect the facts more accurately.

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