Incoming SC spokesman once admonished by high court 

With his reported appointment as head of the Supreme Court Public Information Office, lawyer Theodore "Ted" Te will be speaking on behalf of a court he had locked horns with as part of a group of combative UP Law professors known collectively as the Malcolm 37. Te's appointment, which was confirmed to GMA News Online by reliable sources, has come four months after Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno and the high court retreated to the "days of dignified silence," when justices shied away from talking to the media and could only be heard through their decisions and also through the Supreme Court spokesman. That only increases the pressure on Te, a vocal critic of the court on social media who must now hold his tongue on what he truly thinks. Sereno's predecessor, Renato Corona, would appear on TV for live interviews and accept invitations to media forums. Sereno has declared a policy not to do so. Observers of the court note the irony of a newly appointed spokesman who has argued passionately for transparency speaking for a court that has just erected a wall of silence. "He believes in transparency, I know it will be tough for him," says investigative journalist Marites Vitug, who has written a recent book about the high court that describes Te's critical role in UP Law's battle with the court over plagiarism. "The bureaucracy will be frustrating. He will defend some difficult things." Malcolm 37

 

Prior to Te's appointment, UP Law professor Antonio La Viña — who is also Ateneo School of Government dean — was tapped by his Ateneo classmate Sereno to be the court's communications strategist. Days later, Marvic Leonen, former UP law dean and former chief piece negotiator with the MILF, was installed to complete the high court's roster of 15 magistrates.

 

These three men have more in common than the law school where they taught. They belong to the same group of UP Law educators who stood up to the Supreme Court, and challenged one of its justices — Associate Justice Mariano del Castillo — to resign over plagiarism accusations.

 

Te, Leonen, and La Viña are part of the so-called "Malcolm 37," a group of UP law professors who were admonished by the high court in June 2011 for an audacious letter that year calling for the resignation of Del Castillo, who was accused of passing off as his own works of others in writing two decisions. Malcolm Hall is UP Law's main building. Del Castillo was subsequently cleared of the allegations by his colleagues in the high court.

 

Leonen, 49, is now the youngest justice and has been a long-time colleague of Te's at UP Law.

 

In the Del Castillo plagiarism issue, it was Te - and not Leonen - who supposedly put the final touches on the controversial letter. The UP faculty members ended up being reprimanded by the SC for stirring up public opinion while a case was pending.

 

A vocal Te

 

Aside from the plagiarism controversy, Te has been known to be vocal about his views on Supreme Court-related issues. He once appealed for transparency in the high court's reversal of a "final decision" after the court received several letters from lawyer Estelito Mendoza in connection with the retrenchment of cabin crew of the Philippine Airlines in 1998.

 

Te also wrote of transparency in other branches of government in August of this year, after the death of Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo. On his Facebook note "Robredo-esque," Te said, "The best way for the President to honor Robredo is to ensure that all the policies and practices that ensure transparency, accountability and democratic popular participation that the latter initiated (such as the 'Full Disclosure Policy' for local governments) are sustained, continued and furthered on a national level."

 

Aside from judicial transparency, Te has long been a human rights advocate. He is a member of the Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG), the oldest human rights organization of lawyers in the Philippines. A volunteer lawyer for the group since 1990, he became its national board member from 2001 to 2011.

 

He was the first to present oral arguments at the Supreme Court on the constitutionality of the death penalty, being the legal counsel for Leo Echegaray, the first convict to be executed in the Philippines since capital punishment was reintroduced in 1993. In 1994, Echegaray was found guilty of raping his stepdaughter.

 

"After the execution, Echegaray's lawyer, Theodore Te of the Free Legal Assistance Group (Flag), said he was 'ashamed to be a Filipino' and that capital punishment would breed violence rather than deter it," Adam Easton wrote in The Guardian in 1999. 

 

Te was also part of the group that challenged the Visiting Forces Agreement between the Philippines and the US, as reflected in his profile on the UP Law website.

 

Te teaches Criminal Law and Remedial Law at the University of the Philippines College of Law. Sereno herself had taught law at UP for 19 years.

 

He obtained both his bachelor's degree (in Psychology) and law degree from UP, and eventually became UP's Vice President for Legal Affairs from June 2008 to February 2011. He obtained a Masters degree in law from the Columbia University School of Law in 2012 and was one of the graduation speakers in May 2012.

 

In his graduation speech, Te emphasized that earning a Masters in Laws degree would not be meaningful if receiving it would be the end of it.

 

"It is the curiosity and courage to ask questions, and the passion and determination to find answers,that make our degrees meaningful. The “asking” leads to “acting,” and it is in the process of “asking and acting” that our LL.M.s take on flesh and muscle, blood and bone," he said.

 

"The words etched across Kent Hall, the former site of the Law School—Ius est Ars Boni et Aequi ('Law is the science of the good and the just')—remind us that if 'asking and acting' are flesh and muscle, blood and bone, then 'being good and doing justice' are soul and spirit," he added.

 

"Atty. G"

 

Pending the official announcement of his appointment, Te is set to replace SC spokesperson Ma. Victoria Gleoresty Guerra, who served as acting PIO chief immediately after former Chief Justice Renato Corona was convicted by a Senate impeachment court in May for not truthfully declaring all his wealth in his statement of assets, liabilities and net worth.

 

With Corona's departure from the high court came the departure as well of his spokesman, court administrator Midas Marquez.

 

Guerra, fondly called "Atty. G," sat as spokesperson during the interim period that the government was still looking for Corona's replacement. At the time, Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio - next most senior magistrate to Corona - served as acting chief of justice.

 

It was only after President Benigno Aquino III selected Sereno as top judge that Carpio stepped aside. Sereno had reportedly signed an order dated August 25 - the same date of her appointment - that stated the 30 personnel at the PIO, including Guerra, would be terminated effective October 31, 2012, without prejudice to re-appointment.

 

The tenure of Guerra and the PIO staff, however, were eventually extended, until Te's appointment.

 

It was through the SC PIO, then still under Guerra, that Sereno had declared a return to the "golden days... of dignified silence."

 

In her first official statement since being sworn into office by Aquino last August 25, Sereno revealed that she had declined all media requests for interviews.

 

"Wisdom leads me to seek to return the Supreme Court to its days of dignified silence  when justices were heard and read through their writings, and when actions of the court were best seen in their collective resolutions," Sereno said.

 

Even though Sereno declined interviews, she assured the public that the SC's various offices will engage the media and the public to provide "accurate and timely information." It will now be Ted Te's mandate to communicate to the public on behalf of a reticent court, while suppressing his own famously strong opinions. — Mark Merueñas and Carmela Lapeña/RSJ/HS, GMA News