IMPEACH; DEL CASTILLO GOES ON SICK LEAVE
MANILA, FEBRUARY 9, 2012
(TRIBUNE) The House of Representatives is going to pursue the
impeachment case against Associate Supreme Court Justice Mariano del
Castillo (photo) despite the ongoing impeachment trial of SC Chief
Justice Renato Corona.
House Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II, who was guest at the weekly
Ugnayan sa Batasan Media Forum, said that the impeachment process is a way by
which the government holds impeachable officials accountable for alleged
wrongdoing.
"What if somebody files an impeachment complaint here tomorrow and there is
airtight evidence that the impeachable officer committed graft? Can we say that
we should only have one impeachment (trial)? Our mandate is to initiate
impeachment. We have to answer our call of duty," Gonzales told reporters
minutes after the House justice panel found the impeachment complaint against
Del Castillo sufficient in form and substance.
Del Castillo is accused of betrayal of public trust for allegedly
plagiarizing his ruling on the dismissal of the petition for certiorari filed by
the members of Malaya Lolas or Filipino "comfort women" in a case against the
Japanese government.
The embattled justice is going on an extended medical leave, a high court
official said yesterday.
"I spoke with him this morning,
he did not give any indication about retiring and I think he will continue.
He will be on leave beginning next week. It is a wellness leave (lasting) two or
three weeks." Court Administrator Jose Midas Marquez said, clarifying reports
that Del Castillo who is facing impeachment proceedings in the House of
Representatives plans to retire.
"He underwent bypass several years ago, apparently the bypass was not very
successful because of the arteries ,therefore there is also some degree of
urgency that he undergoes another bypass, another procedure," Marquez added.
Talks that the magistrate is planning to throw in the towel and retire early
swirled anew at the high court this week.
Some senators, notably Sen. Joker Arroyo yesterday at the impeachment trial
of Corona, brought up the issue of another impeachment complaint following news
reports that the House committtee on justice had already voted that the
complaint against Del Castillo as sufficient in form and substance.
Arroyo raised his concern that another impeachment complaint would take up
most of the Senate's time away from legislating.
Gonzales, however, said that the Del Castillo case will not affect the
ongoing Senate trial against Corona.
"The del Castillo case won't weigh (on the Senate) as much as that of Corona
because we only have one allegation. We would not need to subpoena lots of
witnesses. I won't be surprised if it would be over in three weeks," Gonzales
added.
Gonzales also said that the House has an option to defer plenary action on
the Del Castillo case to prevent an overlapping of impeachment proceedings.
"We don't need to rush. We can wait for the Senate's decision on Chief
Justice Corona first before taking action on the Del Castillo case," Gonzales
said.
Earlier, the House Committee on Justice voted 24 to seven finding the
impeachment case against De Castillo sufficient in the ground that the justice
had betrayed public trust when he allegedly plagiarized his ruling in the case
filed by Filipino comfort women against the Japanese government.
The comfort women were asking the High Court to compel the Executive
Department to espouse their claim for apology and other forms of reparations
against the Japanese government for the rape and sexual slavery that they
suffered from the Japanese military during World War 2.
"This is betrayal of public trust because he used the works of foreign
authors, without attribution, to dismiss the petition (of the Malaya Lolas) when
in reality those works expressed the opposite view. His negligence misled the
other justices," Iloilo Rep. Niel Tupas, chairman of the House Committee on
Justice, said.
The Justice panel voted four days before their 60-day mandate to act on
impeachment case expires.
The House leadership time and again has denied the suspension of its session
has anything to do with the impeachment case against Del Castillo, but a ranking
member of the House yesterday admitted it was all part of the strategy to delay
the expiration of the prescribed 60-session day period required of the House to
resolve an impeachment case.
Gonzales made the admission after the House committee voted to find
sufficiency in grounds.
"But I already made known to (justice committee) Chairman Niel Tupas Jr. of
the fact that he has, and the committee has to do it within the remaining this
week not later than next week, so that they would be conscious of the remaining
days.
With the determination of the sufficiency in grounds, the committee still has
to hold another hearing to decide if there is probable cause against del
Castillo before the complaint is brought to plenary, where one-third vote of the
House's 284-member is needed to decide whether to transmit the charges to the
Senate for trial.
According to Gonzales, they were issued a certification by the Director of
the Journal Service they still have five session days remaining to resolve del
Castillo's impeachment case as they have only consumed 55 session days since the
case was referred to the committee Feb. 2 last year.
However, records released by the Office of the Secretary General reveal that
the House conducted a total of 59 sessions last year with the del Castillo
impeachment referred to the committee on the ninth session day of last year on
Feb. 2.
Thus, in 2011, the House panel already consumed 51 session days. Adding the
seven session days this year including the three session days suspended counted
as one, then the House panel had already used 58 session days to date. And that
is excluding the two session days from this week which had been suspended since
Monday.
Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman has also insisted that the prescribed period to
resolve the Del Castillo impeachment case has already lapsed.
In his letter to Tupas, Lagman stressed that the House Justice Committee had
already taken 84 session days since the case was referred to the panel and
stated that the impeachment complaint against Del Castillo must be dismissed
automatically.
Lagman added that the Certification dated 30 January 2012 of the Director of
the Journal Service that "54 session days had elapsed from the time the
impeachment complaint filed against Justice Mariano del Castillo was referred to
the Committee on Justice on 02 February 2011 up to the present" (30 January
2012) is flawed and grossly inaccurate.
"But as long as the House transacted business, each session that transpired
should be counted as a separate session day irrespective of whether a roll call
was made or the session was adjourned or suspended," Lagman said. Gerry Baldo, Charlie V. Manalo and Benjamin B. Pulta
EARLIER REPORT
Impeachment of SC justice accused of plagiarism to be decided
in February By Philip C. Tubeza Philippine Daily Inquirer 2:18 am |
Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012
[PHOTO - FORMER PRESIDENT GMA AND ASSOCIATE JUSTICE DEL
CASTILLO]
The House of Representatives will decide by the first week of February
whether to impeach Supreme Court Justice Mariano del Castillo, an administration
lawmaker said Monday.
Iloilo Representative Niel Tupas Jr., House justice committee chairman, said
that if the House voted to impeach Del Castillo, his case would be brought to
the Senate even if it would be trying the impeachment case against Chief Justice
Renato Corona.
"If we vote in favor of the impeachment, there's a possibility that it would
also go up to the Senate.
|
There are just two possibilities in the Del Castillo case—either
impeachment or dismissal (of the impeachment complaint)," Tupas said in an
interview.
Del Castillo was accused of plagiarism. He supposedly lifted passages written
by international legal experts and used them in a Supreme Court ruling he
authored without citing his sources.
The decision dismissed a petition filed by Filipino women, who claimed to
have been sexually abused by Japanese soldiers during World War II.
Sufficient evidence
The House committee on justice voted 40-7 on December 7 to pursue Del
Castillo's impeachment after it concluded that all evidence, indicating that he
had betrayed the public trust, was sufficient.
Tupas said the House could no longer delay Del Castillo's impeachment
"because under the Constitution, we only have 60 session days to complete the
process. And as of today, we are already on the 52nd or 53rd session day, so
we'll have to finish it by the first week of February."
Tupas said that after Congress shall have resumed its session on January 16,
the House would have to decide whether there were sufficient grounds to impeach
Del Castillo.
"We (the justice committee) already voted on the sufficiency of form and
substance. The next stage is we will vote on the sufficiency of grounds for
impeachment," Tupas said.
"Right now, the chair of the justice committee, including some of the vice
chair persons will be in the Senate for (Corona's) trial. Probably, we will have
to designate an acting chair to pursue the impeachment process with respect to
the Del Castillo case," he added.
Chief News Editor: Sol
Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2012 by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE
NEWS ONLINE
All rights reserved
PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS
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