Says CJ act of not consulting with her, the member in charge, also a violation of SC rules
(Eagle News) — Associate Justice Teresita de Castro on Wednesday confirmed that Supreme Court Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno did not consult her when she issued a blanket temporary restraining order on the Commission on Elections’ proclamation of party-lists in 2013, an act she said was a violation of court rules.
“I am the member in charge. Under our rules, the member in charge oversees the progress and disposition of cases. The Chief Justice only issues the TRO, but she has no authority to act on the case on her own. The case was not raffled to her..I should have been consulted by the Chief Justice. We could have threshed out our differences,” De Castro said.
She added the issuance of the blanket TRO was “grossly unprocedural because she included third parties who were not included in the case.”
De Castro said based on her recommendation to the Chief Justice, only the senior citizens party-list should have been covered by the relief.
“I wrote (Sereno) a letter and asked her why she did that. She didn’t t even call me up. I was explaining the TRO should only be directed against the senior citizens party-list, the impleaded party. It is very basic you cannot include anyone who is not included in the case,” she said.
She said she told Sereno that a blanket TRO “will violate the right of other party-lists to due process of law and the right of their constituents.”
“They will be deprived of their representation in Congress while a case is pending in connection with another party-list in question..I mentioned, you can’t deprive the COMELEC of its constitutional duty to enforce our election laws and proclaim winning candidates and winning party-list organizations,” De Castro said.
In response, according to De Castro, Sereno said, “because there are other cases pending in court.”
She said De Castro issued a reflection, which was taken up by the en banc after recess, on June 5.
She said the en banc decided to issue a status quo ante order instead.
“The TRO (issued by Sereno) was rescinded in the sense because it did not cover any other party-lists anymore,” De Castro said.
