Graft rap filed vs. court administrator Midas Marquez

A youth group leader filed a complaint against Court Administrator Jose Midas Marquez at the Office of the Ombudsman on Monday over his alleged misappropriation of $21.9 million worth of loans which the Supreme Court received in 2003.

Group of Unified Youth for Social Change founder Rizza Joy Laurea charged Marquez for violation of Section 3(e) of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act and Section 7(a) of the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees.

The World Bank granted a loan to the SC for the implementation of the Judicial Reform Support Project (JRSP) that aims to support a more accessible judicial system.

The JRSP has four components: improve case adjudication and access to justice, enhance institutional integrity, strengthen institutional capacity, and assist in strengthening support for the judicial reform process.

However, Laurea said the World Bank found irregularities and questionable disbursements of the fund under the leadership of the late Chief Justice Renato Corona where Marquez also held two other positions at the SC.

The World Bank, through an aide memoire, said the funds for the implementation of the JRSP has been on high risk due to “implementation delays and the additional work required for smooth project closing.”

The memoire also took fault against Marquez for spending $199,900, or P8.6 million, out of the $21.9-million loan for 16 ineligible transactions.

Laurea said these transactions include goodwill games, payments for conferences held in the United States and Indonesia, hotel accommodations, restaurant bills, airfare, seminar resource person fees, reimbursement of travel expenses, printing services, and the purchase of P6.3 million worth of computer equipment.

She said the World Bank urged the SC to refund the amount, but Marquez supposedly disregarded the findings and called it a preliminary report.

“The government, not just the Supreme Court, was injured not only because of the unexplained expenditures but worse, because the multiple appointment of respondent Marquez caused a deterioration of the accountability and transparency of the Supreme Court,” Laurea said in her complaint-affidavit.

Laurea said Marquez’s actions caused delay in the JRSP and must be held accountable for his questionable expenditures.

“The JRSP is a missed opportunity for judicial reform. The noble aim of the World Bank in funding the JRSP is to foster public trust and confidence to the Philippine judicial system. Yet, this noble intention has been crippled by the unyielding and misplaced control of the implementation of the project by respondent Marquez,” she said.

Marquez is included in the shortlist of the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) to replace the retiring Associate Justice Presbitero Velasco Jr., despite Laurea's "vehement opposition," which accused him of being unfit for the magistrate's post over the same World Bank issue.

In a statement issued on Monday, Marquez said the JBC already disregarded the complaint against him during his application for SC magistrate.

“It’s an old recycled issue that does not even involve me. In fact, the JBC has already disregarded this,” he said.

In his answer to Laurea’s opposition filed before the JBC, Marquez said “all the accusations, aside from being hearsay and unsubstantiated, are misplaced.”

He said the letter of opposition, which relied heavily on an aide memoir purportedly from the World Bank, failed to identify the specifics of the allegedly questionable contracts and service he was accused of being involved in.

“In fine, the ‘vehement opposition’ is nothing but an inventory  of general accusations, and instantly erroneously assumes that undersigned (Marquez) is the instigator,” he said in a letter to the JBC on June 25.

He said Laurea “may have misappreciated the information supplied to her” and asked the JBC to disregard and set aside the opposition. — with Nicole-Anne C. Lagrimas/KG/RSJ, GMA News