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01/28/2012
Not content with the blitzkrieg impeachment complaint he helped lodge against Supreme Court (SC) Chief Justice Renato Corona, Akbayan Rep. Walden Bello yesterday turned his blazing guns at SC spokesman and Court Administrator Jose Midas Marquez as he filed a complaint-request for the Office of the Ombudsman to conduct an investigation of Marquez for allegedly failing “to live up to the highest standard of behavior expected of public officials.”
The leftist party-list solon said Marquez, as the public face of the Supreme Court, “could have stood for all that is best in the courts and the legal profession: wisdom, integrity, fairness, a zeal for serving the people. Instead, the totality of his acts and omissions en the institutional failings of the Court: entrenchment into a privileged position, and a refusal to be accountable to the public.”
Bello accused Marquez of acting as the “unofficial defense counsel for the im-peached Chief Justice at the public’s expense, thus crossing the line between being a representative of the Court and being Chief Justice Corona’s private spokesman and defense counsel for the impeachment trial.”
Bello pointed out that “by conflating the Judiciary as an institution with Corona’s private persona, Marquez was trying to leverage the Institution’s credibility to shore up Chief Justice Corona’s defense, not only in the halls of the impeachment tribunal but also in the court of public opinion.”
Worse, Bello said, Marquez had used “the scarce resources of the Supreme Court and the rest of the Judiciary for the personal defense of the Chief Justice, to the detriment of the public.”
This, Bello asserted, is in violation of the prohibition against the use of government personnel, offices and
resources to defend an officer facing impeachment.
Bello said Marquez should also be probed for alleged irregularities in the implementation of the Judicial Reform Support Project (JRSP), a World Bank project intended to expedite case resolution and increase access to justice, based on the issues raised in a still unauthenticated WB document.
As Court administrator, head of the Public Information Office and chair of the Bids and Awards Committee, Marquez was responsible for a “breakdown in internal controls” that led to “ineligible expenditures,” according to Bello.
The World Bank has reportedly asked the SC to refund a total of $199,000 (P8.6-M) in ineligible expenditures.
“This amount would inevitably be paid for from public coffers. It should be noted that the project is funded through a loan, and therefore a liability of the State. As such, they are public funds and subject to Philippine laws designed to prevent their misuse,” said Bello. “Whether this new burden to the public can be traced to malice or incompetence, those responsible must be made to answer.”
Bello lamented that while Marquez claimed the amount only represents “only 0.75 percent of the loan”, it nevertheless “represents lost opportunities, not only for judicial reform, but also for the delivery of basic services to the public. It is textbooks taken away from public schools. It is medicine stolen from those with the least. It is Marie Antoinette, exclaiming that the people should eat cake when they have no bread.”
Marquez said he will answer the graft allegation of Bello for alleged irregularity in the management of the World Bank-funded Judicial Reform Support Project if required by Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales.
“I will submit to the jurisdiction of the OMB should it see it fit to investigate me,” Marquez assured.
Marquez, who is the concurrent spokesman of the Supreme Court said Bello’s move is premature.
“With all due respect, the request of Akbayan to investigate me may be premature. The Court is still presently addressing the concerns of the World Bank,” he said in a brief statement.
He believes it would have been better if Rep. Bello waited for the report of the Supreme Court’ Project Management Office on the issue before it filed the complaint.
Marquez and Bello were earlier at odds after the latter accused him for acting like “an unofficial defense counsel” of Chief Justice Renato Corona in his impeachment case.
Marquez had explained that it is his duty as SC spokesman to also defend the chief justice or any other justice of the high court.
He also stressed that several grounds in the impeachment complaint against Corona involved rulings of SC and he was only responding to questions from reporters.