Vizconde opposes Carpio's nomination to CJ post

Lauro Vizconde of the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC) on Thursday objected to the nomination of Acting Chief Justice Antonio Carpio to the post of chief justice.

 

“I am respectfully submitting my vehement objection to the nomination and appointment of Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, as he is wanting in, and has not proven his possession of the qualities of integrity, probity and independence,” Vizconde said in a three-page opposition filed with the Judicial and Bar Council.

 

Vizconde is the father of Carmela and Anne Marie Jennifer Vizconde, and husband of Estrellita N. Vizconde, who were murdered in 1991. The case gained public prominence after Hubert Webb, a son of former senator Freddie Webb, was implicated as one of the suspects.

 

Vizconde founded the VACC in 1998 with Dante Jimenez. 

 

Vizconde accused Carpio, who he claimed is a longtime counsel and close friend of the Webbs, of “corruption” for allegedly entertaining “biases to serve his own personal interest and the interest of those close to him.” Carpio had inhibited in the deliberations for the case because he once testified in favor of Webb when he was still in private practice, and did not take part in the high court decision that acquitted  the younger Webb.

 

In his opposition, Vizconde quoted former chief justice Renato Corona as saying, “Talagang binabraso at iniimpluwensyahan ni Carpio ang kanyang mga kasama para mapawalang-sala si Webb” months before the High Court acquitted Webb and six others two decades after the murder incident.

 

“I was taken aback by the information given by the Chief Justice, but there is no conceivable reason, other than his commitment to truth and justice, for him to say it,” the aggrieved father said. "These tendencies of his were further highlighted in a subsequent separate proceeding when the former Chief Justice Renato Corona named Justice Carpio as among the three personalities who worked in conspiracy for his ouster (along with the President, among others) during the heat of the Corona impeachment case, Carpio having a beneficial interest to his former post," Vizconde said.

 

President Benigno Aquino III has been at odds with Corona ever since the latter was appointed to the highest post in the judiciary by then-President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo just weeks before she stepped down from office in 2010. At that time, Carpio was the most senior justice in the Supreme Court.

 

 

“Due to such association of Justice Carpio with the President, his appointment will only create the impression of Executive control over the Judiciary, hence, jeopardizing the highly sanctified and ever revered principle of separation of powers,” Vizconde claimed.

 

“Appointing Justice Carpio to the Highest Judicial Office with the foregoing unsettled and still haunting issues will be a blemished start for the new Supreme Court and would only promote divisiveness than unity in our country,” he added. –KG/YA, GMA News