JBC asked: Don't look for Corona replacement yet

By MARK MERUEÑAS, GMA News

Published June 5, 2012 3:28pm

The Judicial and Bar Council on Tuesday was asked not to start yet its search for a new Supreme Court chief justice to replace Renato Corona.

Danilo Lihaylihay, who identified himself in the petition as a tax payer, said the eight-member JBC should first await the Supreme Court's resolution of separate petitions questioning the legality of the impeachment complaint against Corona as well as the five-month Senate impeachment trial that followed its filing.

Lihaylihay was among several individuals who earlier this year separately filed petitions against the impeachment trial and in support of Corona. Other petitioners were Vladimir Cabigao, former Integrated Bar of the Philippines president Vicente Millora, and Oliver Lozano of the Lawyers' League for a Better Philippines.

In February, Lihaylihay, who is also president of the Philippine Association of Revenue Informers, filed a letter-complaint to House Minority Leader Danilo Suarez accusing President Benigno Aquino III of "massive tax evasion, fraud and graft and corrupt practices, through conspiracy and connivance” for the sale of a 3.4-hectare government property to SM Investments Corporation.

Aquino has publicly criticized Corona for his alleged partiality in favor of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who appointed Corona as chief justice in May 2010.

Stop JBC deliberations

In airing his appeal, Lihaylihay said: "I am most respectfully asking that Your honors stop and/or hold-in-abeyance the deliberations on the replacement of the Chief Justice Renato C. Corona of the Honorable Supreme Court of the Philippines, in deference to the final resolution by the Honorable Court en banc of the Supplemental Petition, in the interest of justice."

Last May 31, Lihaylihay filed a supplemental petition asking for the issuance of a temporary restraining order against the implementation of the verdict against Corona. The supplemental petition also sought the declaration of a "mistrial" in the impeachment proceedings. Corona was convicted by the Senate impeachment court on May 29.

In his four-page letter to the JBC, Lihaylihay said Corona should not have been convicted of any crime or of violating any law, since the Implementing Rules and Regulations of Republic Act 6713 - Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees - was not published in the Official Gazette - the government's official publication.

Lihaylihay cited a Supreme Court ruling on the 1986 case "Tanada, et. al. vs. Tuvera, et. al." that declared "all laws including the implementing rules and regulations must be published in full in the Official Gaztte and not elsewhere, in order to have validity or effectivity."

Lihaylihay said he was able to obtain last May 30 a certification from the Official Gazette Division of the National Printing Office that the IRR of RA 6713 was not published.

The petitioner said that while publication in newspapers of general circulation could be better, given their wider reach and availability, "this kind of publication is not the one required or authorized by existing law."

"Consequently, we have no choice but to pronounce that... the publication of laws must be made in the Official Gazette, and not elsewhere, as a requirement for their effectivity," he said.

Lihaylihay cited a complaint his group filed with the Bureau of Internal Revenue in December 2006 asking the agency to investigate Sen. Manny Villar and his wife Cynthia Villar for the non-disclosure in their statement of assets, liabilities, and net worth earnings of P17,163,122,016.01.

Lihaylihay said he eventually decided to drop the case after learning that the IRR of RA 6713 was not published in the Official Gazette. — RSJ, GMA News

Tags: judicialandbarcouncil, supremecourt, renatocorona, coronaimpeachment,