Iloilo's Jardeleza checkmates Chief Justice Sereno

“There is a higher court than courts of justice and that is the court of conscience. It supercedes all other courts.”  Mahatma Gandhi

By Alex P. Vidal

A checkmate. And a big slap on the face of Supreme Court Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno!

That’s how many fellow Ilonggos viewed the sudden turn of events in the nomination of Atty. Francis H. Jardeleza for the position of Supreme Court associate justice.

You don’t put a good man down. So goes the popular dictum for victims of slanderous attacks.

Only hours after Jardeleza won his battle in the Supreme Court when the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) disqualified him for the position of Supreme Court associate justice, President Benigno S. Aquino III pulled a rabbit in his hat by appointing Jardeleza, 64, to the position vacated by Associate Justice Roberto Abad, who retired last May 22.

Jardeleza’s appointment came a week after Malacanang ordered the JBC to reinstate his nomination after being ousted on opposition of Sereno, one of the six JBC members, who challenged his integrity as a nominee during JBC’s last voting on June 30.

Many observers believed Sereno's opposition was more of an act of personal vengeance. 

She and Jardeleza, both former professors in the University of the Philippines-Diliman College of Law, reportedly had a past spat.

As JBC chair, Sereno probably found the golden chance to bamboozle the top-notch jurist from Jaro, Iloilo City.  

But Jardeleza's redemption came on August 19. 

The Supreme Court, voting 7-4, elected to grant Jardeleza’s petition for certiori and mandamus against the JBC, Sereno, the JBC chair and Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa.

PETITION

The petition sought to put on hold Mr. Aquino’s selection of the 15th high court justice until Jardeleza is on the short list.

The JBC earlier disqualified Jardeleza after Sereno invoked Rule 10, Section 2, of the JBC rules with a provision that “when the integrity of an applicant who is not otherwise disqualified for nomination is raised or challenged, the affirmative vote of all the members of the Council must be obtained for the favorable consideration of his nomination.”

We repeatedly described Sereno’s tactic as “an equivalent to a knockout punch in boxing” in our two previous articles.

Sereno was apparently hell-bent to block Jardeleza’s entry in the higher court as manifested by her strong stand when she doubted the Ilonggo jurist’s integrity.

When everything seemed hopeless after Jardeleza’s disqualification, President Aquino halted the guessing game.

It became apparent that Jardeleza was the apple of the president’s eyes.

In the end, the king outsmarted the queen. President Aquino castled on the side of the outstanding Ilonggo aspirant, leaving Jardeleza’s tormentor-turned-chamber boss Sereno counting the stars!

Fighting on wobbly legs in the opening game, Jardeleza was rescued by President Aquino in the middle game in a “queen’s gambit” attack.

The brilliant Iloilo lawyer checkmated Sereno in the end game.

APPOINTMENT

On the day the report came out that Jardeleza was against removed from the shortlist of the final four nominees, President Aquino released Jardeleza’s appointment, to wit:

“Pursuant to the provisions of existing laws, you are hereby appointed ASSOCIATE JUSTICE of the SUPREME COURT (vice Hon. Roberto A. Abad). By virtue hereof, you may qualify or enter upon the performance of the duties of the office, furnishing this Office and the Civil Service Commission with copies of your oath of office.”

Mr. Aquino signed the document August 19, 2014.

Jardeleza was deputy ombudsman for Luzon before Mr. Aquino appointed him solicitor general last February 2012.

Jardeleza’s appointment to the Supreme Court is a poetic justice.

It also served as the biggest embarrassment on the part of Sereno, who will now share the same chamber with the man she never wanted to be an officemate.

Tell us who are your friends

“Neutral men are the devil's allies.”

Edwin Hubbel Chapin

By Alex P. Vidal

The front pages of all the newspapers, headline news of all TV and radio networks yesterday said it all!

The judiciary is hell-bent not to genuflect before the executive branch, its co-equal in government, as manifested by the gallant stand of the majority of the judges, prosecutors, and other hall of justice employees all over the country who wore black last Monday to assert judicial independence.

The move was precipitated by President Benigno Aquino III’s astonishing brickbats against the Supreme Court, which had torpedoed the Palace’s Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) or pork barrel.

Mr. Aquino’s unprecedented tirades against the higher court initially failed to catch fire among lawmakers and local government executives.

They, too, were caught by surprise by the President’s boldness and, to some extent, stubbornness. Many mayors and governors were made to choose between the devil and the deep blue sea.

SUPPORT

But lately, some tong-gressmen, city and municipal mayors and governors started to voice their support for their embattled chief executive in Malacanang.

They were even undaunted and willing to engage in a slugfest the church’s top prelates who denounced the DAP in the pulpits.

These tong-gressmen and some local chief executives must have realized they would be accused by Malacanang as “ingrates” for abandoning the cause that benefited their districts, cities, municipalities and provinces if they did not take a stand and come to the President’s defense at this crucial moment.

A common cause that benefited their favorite contractors and, what else, their own pockets!

DAP funded most local infrastructure and public works projects through the tong-gressmen and sin-nators bribed by Malacanang to impeach Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona.

UNITY

In unity there is strength. United we stand, united we fall.

This must be the battlecry of the local chief executives, tong-gressmen and sin-nators who are now singing hallelujah to President Aquino.

In Negros and Iloilo, many mayors and governors have started to show their true colors by joining the Palace in justifying why DAP should not have been shot down by the Supreme Court like the Malaysian Airlines jet.

They knew that if they abandoned the king, they would be isolated politically and made to face the Commission on Audit’s wrath like condemned and captured enemies facing the firing squad.

The Supreme Court has ordered those who had feasted on the P137.3 billion worth of DAP to return the people’s money. Unable to do so would be tantamount to stealing and the act is punishable by law.

Hence, local chief executives, tong-gressmen and sin-nators are frantically moving heaven and earth in the propaganda and publicity department to reverse the storm by coming out in public and risk their reelection to defend the “good side” of DAP.

MONDAY

The court’s black Monday onslaught was a curt message to the executive branch: we are co-equal and, therefore, will not succumb to any dictatorial fulmination and display of absolute power and attempt to force us on our knees.

We will know if President Aquino’s rah-rah boys and girls in the local government units are really determined to swim and sink with their king if the League of Provinces and League of Cities and Municipalities will pass resolutions defending the president and the DAP.

Tell us who your friends are and we will tell you who you are!

Pork verdict a World Cup goal for Filipinos

“It is better to lead from behind and to put others in front, especially when you celebrate victory when nice things occur. You take the front line when there is danger. Then people will appreciate your leadership.” Nelson Mandela

By Alex P. Vidal

While soccer fans were waiting for the coronation of either Germany, The Netherlands, Argentina, or Brazil in the 2014 FIFA World Cup, the Filipinos already secured their World Cup victory courtesy of the Supreme Court’s 13-1-0 goals against the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) recently.

Malacanang-backed DAP collapsed like a deck of cards and exposed this administration’s subservience to pork barrel to finance infrastructure projects and the like.

Malacanang’s embarrassment, however, became the nation’s victory. A victory sweeter than the FIFA World Cup.

Results of the Filipino People vs DAP championship dominated the major news headlines even in the Middle East, Americas, Australia, Europe where there are large Filipino communities.

Now that DAP has been declared unconstitutional and nipped in the bud, the bleeding of the national treasury will now come to a screeching halt.

STOP

The Supreme Court ruling stopped the thieves masquerading as public servants in their tracks.

But the sweetest World Cup goal came from the higher court’s order for those who have siphoned millions of DAP or pork barrel share to return the money.

The money belongs to the Filipino people and the SIN-nators and other lawmakers who feasted on DAP under this administration shouldn’t touch it with a ten-foot pole, ordered the Supreme Court.

But while we are jubilant about our own domestic World Cup conquest, we feel sad that some of the major infrastructure projects that have started rolling down the city and province of Iloilo are among those expected to be torpedoed.

Senate President Frank Drilon’s name came out first in the list of sin-nators with large sums of DAP appropriations at P100 million as of December 2012.

PROJECTS

Drilon picked the tab from the DAP of most multimillion pesos worth of projects being implemented through the Department of Public Works and Highways and  inaugurated by no less than President Noynoy Aquino in Iloilo City last June 27.

Drilon has confirmed that DAP partly funded the almost P1-billion Iloilo Convention Center (ICC) at the Iloilo Business Park in Mandurriao district.

“Partly funded” means money has already been funneled to the gigantic structure President Aquino described as like the Sydney Opera House.  

What was shocking and repulsive, to say the least, was the revelation that some of the sin-nators who claim to be “champions” of public service and integrity like presidentiables Francis Escudero (P50 million), Allan Peter Cayetano (P50 million), Loren Legarda (P50 million), and Antonio Trillanes IV (P50 million) are also closet pork eaters.