Philconsa to Leonen: Stay out of BOL case
Credit to Author: JOMAR CANLAS, TMT| Date: Sun, 03 Mar 2019 17:08:09 +0000
THE Philippine Constitution Association (Philconsa) has sought the inhibition of Associate Justice Marvic Leonen from a case it filed before the Supreme Court (SC) asking to declare the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) as “null and void.”
In an eight-page motion for inhibition, Philconsa prayed that Leonen “be recused from participating in the consideration of [the case] in consonance with the announcement of the [high court] and his earlier actuation in recusing in participating from Philconsa vs. Philippine Government GPH[.]”
The Senate represented by Senate President Vicente Sotto 3rd, the House of Representatives represented by Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and the Office of the President represented by Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea were named respondents in Philconsa’s petition asking the high court to issue a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the implementation of the law, which creates the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in place of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
“It is an irrefragable fact that prior to his appointment to the Supreme Court as Associate Justice in November 2012, Justice Leonen was named in July 2010 as the Philippine government’s chief negotiator with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which culminated [in] the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro — which was done and initiated on October 12, 2012 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and signed in Manila on Oct. 15, 2012,” the motion read.
Philconsa cited the rule on disqualification of judges laid down in Rule 137, Section 1 of the Rules of Court.
“A judge may, in the exercise of his sound discretion, disqualify himself from sitting in a case, for just or valid reasons that those mentioned…” it said.
Because of this, Philconsa argued that Leonen was prohibited, not only by the Constitution “but by the Rules from taking part in any deliberations or proceedings…on the constitutionality of the [Republic Act] 110054 abolishing the ARMM, a creation of the 1987 Constitution, and creating the BARMM [Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao], acting in excess of and/or with grave abuse of discretion, therefore, null and void.”
Leonen had, in the past, inhibited himself from the cases involving the the framework of the BBL.
The high court has released a statement in 2015 that Leonen should voluntarily inhibit himself from all pending and future cases related to the Framework and Comprehensive Agreements on the Bangsamoro and the BBL.
Earlier, Philconsa also sought a TRO to stop Malacañang from implementing Executive Order 120 that formed the Bangsamoro Transition Commission.
It also led a group that filed a petition before the high tribunal seeking that the government’s peace deals with the MILF be declared unconstitutional in 2015.
The first petition, which was filed before the high court by the province of Sulu, duly represented by its Gov. Abdusakur Tan 2nd, went to Leonen as ponente of the case.
The Tan petition was raffled off to Leonen, but since it is the first and the lowest docket number, it will now absorb the Philconsa petition, along with the intervention filed by the Philippine Association of Islamic Accountants (PAIA), which took the stand of the government and even asked for the junking of the petitions lodged by the Sulu provincial government and Philconsa.
Commissioner Manuelito Luna of the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission along with PAIA President Amanoding Esmail represented the intervenors.
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