Sandigan justice won’t inhibit from pork scam cases

The Sandiganbayan’s top magistrate has refused to inhibit herself from the pork barrel scam cases after finding no merit in the argument of former Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile and his former chief of staff, Jessica “Gigi” Reyes, that she may be swayed by deep-seated prejudice and “subconscious forces.”

In a 23-page resolution, Presiding Justice Amparo Cabotaje-Tang denied for “utter lack of merit” Enrile’s and Reyes’ separate motions to recuse her from their cases pending in the Special Third Division.

While “it may be true that subconscious forces reside in every person, neither Enrile nor his lawyer, Estelito Mendoza, nor Tang herself could presume to divine what particular unconscious powers operate in her inner being,” Tang said.

“What must not be forgotten is that all members of the judiciary, before assuming their office, are required to take an oath … to rule on each case and every case that is lodged before them, with objectivity and impartiality,” she said.

Enrile had hinted that Tang’s appointment to the antigrat court by former President Benigno Aquino III might influence her decisions in the pork cases.