Case of court interpreter served as template for Senate decision to convict Corona

Senator Sergio Osmeña III said the Supreme Court had issued “numerous” decisions on SALN violations by government officials and employees.

A 15-year-old Supreme Court decision dismissing a lowly court interpreter from government service for not reporting a market stall in her statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN) served as template for the conviction of Chief Justice Renato Corona.

Senator Sergio Osmeña III said the Supreme Court had issued “numerous” decisions on SALN violations by government officials and employees.

But the Rabe vs Flores case of 1997 deserves notice since it was also about a court worker who failed to disclose a property, he said.

The Regional Trial Court Branch 4 in Panabo, Davao, dismissed Delsa Flores from service for failing to disclose ownership of a stall in a public market in her SALN.

The high court also forfeited her retirement benefits and accrued leave credits and barred her from reemployment in government, including in government-owned or -controlled corporations.

The Court said Flores’ failure “to disclose her business interest, which she herself admitted, is inexcusable and is a clear violation” of Republic Act No. 6713, or the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees.

Perpetually disqualified

“Ms. Flores was perpetually disqualified from holding office. If the court was supplied with bank passbook of Flores (that contained) $10,000 that was not reported in her SALN, would the court ruling be the same? Dismissal and perpetual disqualification? Yes. The Supreme Court would have ruled similarly,” Osmeña surmised.

“If these public officers are dismissed for failing to declare far less valuable assets in their SALNs despite and regardless of excuses, there is more reason to apply the law when assets in question amount to more than P80M,” he added.

Osmeña referred to the $2.4 million and P80.7 million in hard cash that Corona admitted as his deposits in several banks.

“We should not penalize a poor man for stealing bicycle but rule that the rich man must first steal a Mercedes before he is subject to a similar penalty,” Osmeña said.

“We must tell all the Ms. Floreses that justice is to the best of our ability, applied equally to the rich and powerful as well as the poor and powerless,” he added.

Flores’ case was cited several times as the Supreme Court precedent that must be observed in disciplining one who works in the judiciary.

Majority Leader Vicente Sotto said he had encountered many Supreme Court decisions “whereby lower court judges were dismissed and deprived of all their benefits for simple infractions of law or missteps.”

“Should the same strict measures ought to be applied to members of the Supreme Court?” he asked.

Senators Alan Peter Cayetano and several other senators also referred to the Flores case in casting a vote against Corona.

“The court clerk who did not declare her stall was immediately dismissed. Why is it that when a rich man is arrested, he can explain, make excuses, twist the laws and invent technicalities?” Cayetano asked.

Senator Loren Legarda said that if Flores can be dismissed, “I do not see any reason why we cannot apply the same law to the Chief Justice.”

“If we acquit the Chief Justice, we would tragically lift the floodgates for public suspicion and widespread disgust for the highest judicial institution. We also lower the bar for accountability of public officials,” she said.