Palace can't appoint Sandigan chief - SC
By Edu Punay (The Philippine Star) Updated April 23, 2010 12:00 AM
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MANILA, Philippines - The recent ruling of the Supreme Court (SC) allowing President Arroyo to appoint the
next chief justice has effectively barred her from making midnight appointments to positions in the lower
courts.
This was emphasized by court administrator and SC spokesman Midas Marquez who said that the rule
prohibiting the appointment of judges and justices in appellate courts, based on the 1998 decision on the
appointments of Judges Mateo Valenzuela and Placido Vallarta, still stands.
The SC on Tuesday upheld a March 17 ruling exempting the SC from the constitutional ban on midnight
appointments. The ruling in effect gave the President the go-signal to appoint the successor of retiring Chief
Justice Reynato Puno.
“This final decision of the court only covers appointments to the SC, not to the Sandiganbayan and positions
in the lower courts,” Marquez explained.
He said the court rejected a government plea to exempt the entire judiciary from the ban.
“There are nine participating justices who voted to affirm the March 17 ruling. So in order to overturn Vallarta
to exempt the entire judiciary from the ban on midnight appointment, there must be at least seven justices
who would favor that the ban extend not only to SC but to the entire justices as well,” he said.
Marquez said five magistrates led by Associate Justice Lucas Bersamin voted to overturn the Valenzuela-
Vallarta ruling.
The others were Justices Jose Perez, Roberto Abad, Martin Villarama Jr. and Teresita Leonardo-de Castro.
Four other justices, on the other hand, had taken the position that appellate and lower courts should not be
covered by the exemption.
They were Associate Justices Arturo Brion, Jose Mendoza, Mariano del Castillo and Diosdado Peralta.
The top post in the Sandiganbayan became vacant following the death of Norberto Geraldez from pancreatic
cancer complications barely a month after his appointment.
Senior Justice Edilberto Sandoval has been designated acting presiding justice of the anti-graft court.
Acquiescence
While aching to name the next chief justice, Malacañang said it would abide by the SC ruling against
midnight appointments to the Sandiganbayan and the lower courts.
“The High Court has spoken, we would abide by it,” deputy presidential spokesman Gary Olivar said.
He said the Palace has also asked Justice Secretary Alberto Agra to respond to the summons of the SC to
comment on questions regarding his concurrent position as Solicitor General.
“Our stand there is for Secretary Agra to comply with whatever the Supreme Court is asking him to explain or
to do,” he said.
Olivar said President Arroyo would not knowingly make an illegal appointment in the case of Agra’s dual
posts.
Senator’s appeal
Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr., meanwhile, called on President Arroyo to inhibit from
appointing Puno’s successor despite the SC ruling.
“There is still a remedy and that is for Gloria to inhibit herself from appointing the chief justice,” Pimentel
said during the Kapihan sa Senado yesterday.
“The incumbent president who only has a few weeks remaining in power, out of prudence and delicadeza,
should not take up the matter of appointing a new chief justice,” he added.
Pimentel reiterated his stand that the SC might have erred when it ruled in a majority decision that Mrs.
Arroyo may appoint a new chief justice despite a constitutional ban on midnight appointments.
“It’s not a question whether the SC rules with finality, the question is whether the ruling of the SC is right or
wrong and it should be defended by the SC publicly,” Pimentel added.
Pimentel, a veteran lawyer, maintained that the SC was “certainly wrong by the standards of the Constitution
and of the law.”
He noted that the President may appoint people as long as she is president, but the appointment of the chief
justice is not obligatory immediately after a vacancy.
“It will be very imprudent of the President to appoint a new chief justice considering the circumstances,”
Pimentel said.
JBC list almost ready
President Arroyo will get the list of nominees for the incoming SC chief justice from the Judicial and Bar
Council (JBC) next month, Quezon City Rep. Matias Defensor said yesterday.
“There is no need to rush the submission of the list because Chief Justice Reynato Puno is retiring on May
17 yet,” he said.
Defensor sits in the council as representative of the House of Representatives, where he chairs the
committee on justice.
He said most likely, the JBC would send the list to Mrs. Arroyo shortly before Puno retires.
He said the council would still have to vote on when to submit the list and who would be in it.
The council has interviewed four applicants for Puno’s job. They are Associate Justices Renato Corona,
Arturo Brion and Teresita de Castro of the SC, and Sandiganbayan Justice Edilberto Sandoval.
Two other applicants – SC Associate Justice Antonio Carpio and Conchita Morales – have said they would
not accept an appointment from Mrs. Arroyo.
The two said the President would be violating the constitutional ban on midnight appointments if she named
Puno’s successor.
There are speculations that the President prefers Corona over Carpio, who is the most senior associate
justice.
Defensor confirmed that Corona was almost in tears when he faced the JBC. On the day he was
interviewed, the Philippine Bar Association came out with newspaper ads criticizing Corona and his wife,
who is an appointee of Mrs. Arroyo in Camp John Hay in Baguio City.
“He felt that the criticisms were unfair, that he was happy with his family and that was all that mattered to
him, that he did not need the job of chief justice,” Defensor said.
He revealed that he and his Senate counterpart in the JBC, Sen. Francis Escudero, would still push for the
inclusion of Carpio and Morales in the JBC list.
“We should not preempt the President and her successor. Who knows, she might not exercise her right to
appoint the next chief justice and leave it to the next president,” he said.
He said if Mrs. Arroyo does not exercise such right, her successor could not consider Carpio and Morales if
their names are not in the JBC list.
“Remember that the President can appoint only from the list of nominees submitted by the JBC. So we have
to include them in our list, just in case,” he added. Jess Diaz, Christina Mendez and Paolo Romero
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Massacre raps vs 2 Ampatuans dropped
By Sandy Araneta (The Philippine Star) Updated April 18, 2010 12:00 AM
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MANILA, Philippines - Justice Secretary Alberto Agra cleared yesterday two members of the Ampatuan clan
of involvement in the massacre of 57 people in Maguindanao last Nov. 23.
Cleared of multiple murder charges were detained Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Gov.
Zaldy Ampatuan and Mamasapano Mayor Akmad Ampatuan.
Agra directed prosecutors to remove the names of the two from the charge sheet.
Agra, however, said the charges against former Maguindanao governor Andal Ampatuan Sr. and Datu Unsay
town mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr. remain.
In clearing Zaldy Ampatuan, Agra said conspiracy was not established. In his decision, Agra acted on a
petition for review filed by the two Ampatuans.
“Existence of conspiracy was not proven and being relatives and having similar surnames does not mean
there was conspiracy,” Agra said.
Agra also said documentary evidence proved that Zaldy Ampatuan was not at the crime scene at the time of
the massacre.
“There’s no proof of conspiracy so it gave weight to Zaldy Ampatuan’s alibi. I cleared Zaldy based on the
evidence he presented, consisting of plane tickets and cell phone records that he was not in Maguindanao
at the time of the massacre, and a witness who testified that he was not in Maguindanao at the time,” Agra
said.
The DOJ chief said he cleared Akmad Ampatuan because the witness, Kenny Dalagdag, did not identify him.
“Second, because he was not included in the charge sheet of the National Bureau of Investigation and the
Philippine National Police (PNP), and third because he had an alibi, that he joined a medical mission
elsewhere at the time of the massacre,” he said.
He said prosecutors would formally manifest before Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes the exclusion of the two
from the list of the accused.
“It will depend on the judge,” Agra said when asked if the two Ampatuans would be released.
Agra said he expected his resolution to spark a controversy. “I resolved the petition for review based on
evidence before me and not because it is popular clamor or what,” he said.
Agra also directed the provincial prosecutor of Maguindanao to withdraw all charges of murder and
frustrated murder against a group that included a key witness in the massacre.
Ordered dropped were the separate charges of murder and frustrated murder against Mokammad (also
spelled Mohammad) Sangki, Salik Sangki, Abdila Makalingay, Akmad Sangki, and Teng Pigkaulan.
Mokammad Sangki was a key witness in the Nov. 23 massacre in Ampatuan, Maguindanao in which 57
people - among them political rivals of the Ampatuan clan, their lawyers and supporters and at least 31
journalists - were shot dead and then buried in a hilly portion of Barangay Salman. Some of the victims were
buried in their vehicles.
The real targets of the massacre were the wife and relatives of Buluan Vice Mayor Esmael Mangudadatu
who were on their way to Shariff Aguak to file his certificate of candidacy for governor to challenge Andal Jr.
In a petition, Zaldy’s lawyer Redemberto Villanueva asked Agra to take a second look at the joint resolution
approved by state prosecutors, which named the ARMM governor as one of those indicted for multiple
murder.
Villanueva pointed out that Zaldy Ampatuan was not even included in the information filed by the Criminal
Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) of the PNP against more than 100 people implicated in the
slaughter.
“The governor was in Davao City all along, and it was impossible for Kenny Dalandag, who claimed to be a
member of the private armed group of Maguindanao Gov. Andal Ampatuan Sr., to insist that Zaldy Ampatuan
was present at a conference purportedly held on Nov. 22 at a compound in Shariff Aguak, Maguindanao,”
Villanueva stressed.
He added that the only piece of evidence cited by the panel of prosecutors to justify the inclusion of Zaldy in
the massacre case was the affidavit of Dalagdag.
He said the affidavit was only a “curative information that defies all physical laws since Gov. Zaldy Ampatuan
was in Davao City from Nov. 20 to 22.”
“Curative information have been condemned by the Commission on Human Rights since the filing of such
information against the accused does not cure the inherently illegal character of the arrest and the detention
of those charged,” he said in his petition.
“This defies all physical laws and imbues Gov. Zaldy Ampatuan with the power of bilocality,” he said of
Dalagdag’s affidavit.
“This is a complete fabrication since the governor was in Juan Luna Subdivision in Davao City from Nov. 20
to 22,” Villanueva said.
“Gov. Zaldy Ampatuan flew to Manila for a meeting in Malacañang on Nov. 23 and he took his flight in Davao
City,” he said.
To back up his claim, Villanueva submitted evidence that included receipts from telecommunication
companies that showed the ARMM governor’s calls were made in Davao City at the approximate time that
Dalagdag alleged that Zaldy Ampatuan was in Shariff Aguak.
Witnesses also attested to the presence of the ARMM governor in Davao City.
“Despite such obvious lack of evidence against Zaldy Ampatuan, he was still included in the list of 107
individuals who were indicted on Feb. 5, 2010 by a panel of investigating prosecutors in their joint resolution
for 57 counts of multiple murder,” the lawyer said.
He said Zaldy Ampatuan was arrested on Dec. 4, 2009 on the basis of an arrest warrant issued by Lt. Gen.
Raymundo Ferrer, who was not authorized under the 1987 Constitution to issue arrest warrants.
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