MANILA, Apr 11 (Mabuhay) — Sen. Pia Cayetano filed with the Supreme Court (SC) a petition-in-intervention on Thursday so that she may participate in the pending case filed by the Philippine Tobacco Institute (PTI) against the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Department of Health (DOH) that seeks to define “the extent of FDA’s […]
The Supreme Court has ordered the lifting of the freeze order issued by the Court of Appeals on the assets of retired military comptroller Lt. Gen. Jacinto Ligot, saying the order already violates his right to due process. In a 24-page ruling penned by Associate Justice Arturo Brion, the SC’s Second Division agreed with Ligot’s petition contesting the six-month extension of the freeze order that the CA issued on July 5, 2005 and extended through an order issued on September 2005. The CA order stemmed from the June 27, 2005 request of the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) to freeze the assets of Ligot, who is accused of amassing millions of pesos in ill-gotten wealth while he was comptroller of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) from July 1999 to March 2001, and not declaring P54,001,217-worth of assets in his Statement of Assets Liabilities and Net Worth. In its decision issued on March 6, the high court acknowledged the CA findings that there is probable cause that the frozen assets could be related to or could be the product of unlawful activity. “It should be noted that the existence of an unlawful activity that would justify the issuance and the extension of the freeze order has likewise been established in this case,” the SC said. However, the high court faulted the CA for extending by six months the original freeze order, saying: “The effectivity of a freeze order may be extended by the CA for a period not exceeding six Read More …
The Supreme Court has given the go signal for the Sandiganbayan to hear the technical malversation case filed against a vice mayor from Ilocos Norte for allegedly using public funds to purchase a heavy equipment. In its decision, the Supreme Court second division junked a petition for certiorari filed by Vice Mayor Pacifico Velasco of Bacarra town seeking to stop the Sandiganbayan from hearing the case and accusing the anti-graft court of grave abuse when it denied on June 9, 2005 his motion for reinvestigation of the malversation case lodged against him. “In all, we see no grave abuse of discretion on the part of the Sandiganbayan in denying the motion for reinvestigation,” said the Supreme Court in a decision penned by Associate Justice Antonio Carpio and concurred in by Associate Justices Arturo Brion and Mariano del Castillo. The Supreme Court dismissed Velasco’s claim that the Sandiganbayan denied him his right to move for the reconsideration of the Ombudsman’s recommendation to file malversation charges against him, with the high tribunal noting that he had filed earlier an Omnibus Motion for Reconsideration before the Office of the Special Prosecutor. “(W)hen petitioner filed an Omnibus Motion for Reconsideration, he was effectively appealing a Memorandum issued by the Office of the Special Prosecutor,” the Supreme Court said. “The filing of another [MR] constitutes a prohibited pleading.” The case against Velasco was filed by former Bacarra mayor Philip Corpus Velasco, who accused the vice mayor of misusing public funds to purchase a road grader Read More …
The Supreme Court has issued guidelines on the oral arguments—scheduled for Tuesday, March 19—on the controversial “Team Patay, Team Buhay” posters that were hung in a Bacolod cathedral. In a notice signed by SC Clerk of Court Enriqueta Vidal, the high court informed both respondent (the Commission on Elections) and petitioner (Bacolod Bishop Vicente Navarra) that they would each be given 20 minutes, regardless of the number of lawyers they would be bringing, to defend their respective positions. The high court last week issued a temporary restraining order that stopped the Comelec from tearing down the controversial posters, which contained a list of supposed bishop-approved senatorial candidates, called Team Buhay, and a list of supposedly undesirable candidates, called Team Patay. The list is based on a candidate’s stand regarding the reproductive health law. Under the Team Patay roster are those who supported the passage of the law while Team Buhay is the list of candidates said to be pro-life and who voted against the bill. The poll body wrote a letter to Navarra asking him to take down the tarpaulins because they violated Comelec rules of the size of election posters. Navarra accused Comelec of violating the principle of the separation of the church and state, as well as the church’s right to expression. In its guidelines, the SC said the oral arguments seek to determine whether any of the parties violated the principle of separation of church and state: the Bacolod diocese when it posted the tarpaulins and Comelec Read More …
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) said the Supreme Court has no jurisdiction over its order to the Diocese of Bacolod to remove its controversial “Team Buhay/Team Patay” tarpaulin. “Wala pa namang kaso, ano inaakyat nila sa Supreme Court?” Comelec chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. told reporters during an interview Monday. “The only thing we’ve sent so far is a letter coming from the Comelec telling them to remove it (tarpaulin) in three days. What will they tell the Supreme Court? May sulat kaming tinanggap dito? Di naman pupwede ‘yun,” he added. According to reports, the Bacolod diocese filed a petition with the Supreme Court asking it to declare as unconstitutional the Comelec’s orders to remove the tarpaulin. But Brillantes said for the diocese to go to the high court on the basis of their letter is “the best evidence that there is something wrong with the lawyer.” “Simpleng-simple lang, sundin lang ninyo ‘yung sukat [ng tarpaulin], tama na sa amin ‘yun. I think it is the lawyer of the bishop who is trying to make something out of this, who is trying to make a big fuss of a small matter,” he said. He also said unless they are restrained by the Supreme Court, they will proceed with the filing of election offense charges against the people behind the oversized tarpaulin. “By tomorrow if the Supreme Court does not come out with anything, no TRO (temporary restraining order) or nothing, we will proceed with the process,” he said. “When we say Read More …
The Supreme Court has cleared several journalists of indirect contempt for their article on the disbarment complaint against one of the defense lawyers in the high-profile Maguindanao massacre case. At the same time, the high court found a prosecution lawyer in the case guilty of indirect contempt for distributing copies of the complaint, which it said was supposed to be confidential, against Philip Sigfrid Fortun to the media. In a 16-page decision, the court ordered private prosecutor Prima Quinsayas to pay P20,000 in connection with the filing of the disbarment case on November 22, 2010. “As a lawyer and an officer of the Court, Atty. Quinsayas is familiar with the confidential nature of disbarment proceedings. However, instead of preserving its confidentiality, Atty. Quinsayas disseminated copies of the disbarment complaint against petitioner to members of the media which act constitutes contempt of court,” the Supreme Court said. Fortun is a legal counsel for members of the Ampatuan family who are implicated in the massacre of 58 people, including over 30 journalists, in Maguindanao on November 23, 2009. Quinsayas has yet to comment on the ruling, saying she has yet to receive a copy of it. “I’ll have to read the SC decision first before I can make a sensible response,” she told GMA News Online. In its ruling, the Supreme Court said that as a complainant and a lawyer, Quindayas was bound by Section 18, Rule 139-B of the Rules of Court, which maintains the confidentiality of a disbarment case until Read More …
The Supreme Court has upheld a Commission on Elections (Comelec) ruling disqualifying Mauricio Plaza Jr. from joining the congressional race in Agusan del Sur in the coming May elections. In a full court decision, the high tribunal said Mauricio failed to “sufficiently show grave abuse of discretion” on the part of Comelec when it disqualified him and struck his name off the Candidates’ Profile System and Certified List of Candidates. Plaza was among the individuals declared by the Comelec as “nuisance” candidates through Comelec en banc Resolution 9610. “The procedures adopted by the Comelec in resolving petitions to deny due course to or to cancel certificate of candidacy, declare nuisance candidates, and disqualify candidates are consistent with its power to provide simplified procedural rules,” the high court said. This power is enshrined under Section 3, Article IX-C of the 1987 Constitution, which authorizes the Comelec to promulgate its rules of procedure in order to expedite the disposition of election cases. The case started when Plaza filed a petition for review with the SC, asking it to intervene and order the Comelec to include him in the list of candidates for the coming elections. “The records would show that… Plaza was afforded his right to prove the legitimacy of his candidacy [before he was declared a nuisanc candidate],” the high court said in its ruling. — Mark D. Merueñas/KBK, GMA News
(Updated 5:44 p.m.) Broadcast giant GMA Network Corp. on Friday asked the Supreme Court to stop and declare as illegal two Commission on Elections (Comelec) resolutions limiting political advertisements in television and radio. In a 56-page petition for certiorari, the network said Comelec Resolution 9615 issued in January and Resolution 9631 in February imposing limits on the total number of minutes for a national or local candidate’s broadcast campaign were “too restrictive.” “We raised that the aggregate airtime for political advertisements is restrictive considering that it inpinges on the right to suffarge and the right of the people to be informed on important matters and the right of the people to free speech and expression,” said one of the network’s lawyers, Maria Estelita Arles. Under the January Comelec ruling, which was upheld by the February resolution, the following guidelines were set: For all national candidates, 120 minutes in all TV networks and 180 minutes in all radio stations For all local candidates, 60 minutes in all TV networks and 90 minutes in all radio stations. GMA Network also asked the high court to issue a temporary restraining order or a writ of preliminary injunction against the Comelec ruling. It also said the Comelec ruling should be declared unconstitutional and unlawful for having been promulgated in excess or without jurisdiction. “Section 9(a) of the new rulesis a cruel and oppressive regulation as it imposes the unreasonable and nearly impossible burden on the broadcast mass media of monitoring a candidate’s or political Read More …
The Supreme Court’s Public Information Office (SC-PIO) has been transferred to a new location to give space to Associate Justice Marvic Leonen’s new office. In a text message, the SC-PIO told GMA News Online that from the third floor of the Supreme Court Annex Building along Padre Faura in Manila, the SC-PIO has “temporarily relocated” to the building’s sixth floor. “We shall be holding office at the 6th floor Annex for about two weeks until renovation of our new office at SC-CA building is done,” the SC-PIO said. A highly placed SC source told GMA News Online that the transfer was meant to give way to Leonen and his staff. “Right after appointment, Leonen immediately inspected the SC-PIO as he was planning to transfer there,” the source said. This was confirmed in a letter by SC PIO chief and spokesperson Ma. Victoria Gleoresty Guerra to Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno. Sereno indicated that the relocation was a result of an “urgency for Justice Leonen’s chambers to have the privacy and space it requires.” The court source said Leonen ended up occupying the SC-PIO as a result of on-going building renovations at the SC. “Kapag may umaalis na justice, pasa-pasa lang iyang mga rooms ng justices. Eh kapag may inaayos pa na room, hindi kagad nakakalipat, kaya ang bagong pasok na justice will usually have to wait,” the source added. The most junior SC member, Leonen was appointed to the SC on November 21, shortly after the bilateral deal was signed, Read More …