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SC revokes Sereno order
‘Rebuff’ designed to legalize action
- Details
- Published on Tuesday, 11 December 2012 23:00
- Written by GERARD NAVAL
SUPREME Court justices yesterday revoked a controversial resolution issued by Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno last month, according to court sources.
The questioned resolution, dated November 27, allowed the reopening of the Regional Court Administration Office (RCAO) in Cebu City.
The high court would not confirm the reported revocation which is virtually a rebuff of Sereno. But its public information office (PIO) said the justices, during the en banc session presided by Sereno, agreed to come up with an order about decentralizing the tribunal’s administrative functions over lower courts.
In a statement, the PIO said the magistrates were “of one mind on the merits of decentralization and have agreed on measures to ensure its effective and deliberate implementation.”
They also agreed to create a committee headed by Associate Justice Jose Perez, who is a former SC administrator, “to conduct a needs assessment of decentralization,” the PIO said.
However, the PIO which is under the direct supervision of Sereno’s office was silent as to whether the order was already tantamount to the revocation or suspension of the chief justice’s resolution.
The RCAO project, which failed when pilot-tested during the time of Chief Justice Reynato Puno, aimed to decentralize the functions of the Office of the Court Administrator to facilitate operations in major regions.
Last week, Associate Justice Teresita Leonardo de Castro asked the SC to recall Sereno’s Administrative Order No. 175 that created the new Judiciary Decentralized Office and reopened the RCAO in Cebu City. She said no deliberations were held on the creation of the two offices, and the consensus of the justices was to “oppose the reopening of RCAO-7 because there is yet no pilot testing or study conducted showing the scope of powers of the Office of the Court Administrator, which will be transferred to RCAO.
The resolution was supposed to be tackled during the en banc last week but Sereno called in sick.
De Castro, in asking for the recall, said Sereno’s issuance of the “fake en banc resolution” does not only deprive her colleagues the right “to exercise their constitutional duty to exercise administrative supervision over the judiciary, but also infringed on the statutory duty of the Office of the Court Administrator.”
“In fact, at the end of the deliberation, after hearing the vehement objections of the justices to her AO, if I may quote the Chief Justice, she said: ‘I will amend my administrative order,’” said De Castro in her three-page memorandum to the court last week.
Under the rules of the tribunal, the chief justice may issue an administrative order but subject to the collegial approval of the rest of the members of the court.
Yesterday’s en banc session was the last for this year.
Sereno is expected to be in the US on December 14.
“For the first time in recent history, the Chief Justice and Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the Philippines will engage in a peer-to-peer exchange with their counterparts in the United States of America,” a statement from the SC said.
It said Sereno and Associate Justices Presbitero J. Velasco, Jr., Mariano C. del Castillo, and Estela M. Perlas-Bernabe will meet with Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and the Associate Justices of the United States Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., to discuss, among others, maintaining judicial stability in a rapidly changing environment.
Sereno was also invited by the World Bank to deliver the keynote address on Access to Justice and Social Inclusion, in celebration of the Law, Justice and Development Week 2012. She will be speaking on “The Cost of Injustice.”
Other activities scheduled during the four-day official visit include a meeting with US Attorney General Eric H. Holder, knowledge sharing with the Federal Judicial Center and the Administrative Office of the US Courts, and a forum on Philippine Judicial Reform sponsored by the US-Philippines Society.
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