SC to exclude Purisima kin from oath-takers - source

The Supreme Court is set to exclude Justice Fidel Purisima's nephew, along with three others, from the list of new lawyers who will take their oath on May 3, for failing to comply with certain bar requirements, a highly reliable court insider said yesterday.

The source said the 14 Supreme Court justices were "unanimous" in their initial deliberations last Tuesday in Baguio City to "disqualify" Mark Anthony Purisima from the list of the 1999 bar examinees.

The three others were identified as Josenilo Reoma, Ma. Salvacion Revilla and Victor Tesorero.

The four examinees passed, with Purisima obtaining a 76 percent grade, but they failed to submit a pre-bar requirement certifying that they took a refresher course, or that they went back to school after failing to pass the bar exams thrice.

The certification of completion of the pre-bar review course was supposed to be submitted to the Supreme Court within 60 days after the last day of the bar exams in September last year.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court will take up today the letters sent by the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, former Senate President Jovito Salonga and former Justice Minister Sedfrey Ordoñez calling for an impartial investigation into the improprieties Justice Purisima committed.

Salonga and Ordoñez suggested that the High Court authorize the committee led by former Justice Ameurfina Melencio-Herrera to conduct a "prompt, independent and thoroughgoing investigation."

They said an independent probe is necessary since Purisima had refused to step down, saying "all sorts of speculations and innuendoes are now rife, in the absence of a credible account of what actually happened in the handling of the 1999 bar examinations."

They cited as basis for the investigation Purisima's belated admission that his nephew Mark Anthony took the exams, and his admission that he leaked to Ombudsman Aniano Desierto last year the results of the tribunal's voting on the behest loans.

They also cited Purisima's "insistence to fast-track" and handle the jai alai case and his draft decision on the National Telecommunications Commission case which "found its way into the PLDT (Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co.) offices, signed by Purisima but not signed by the other justices."

The High Court was supposed to take up Purisima's blunder in not disclosing his relationship with a 1999 bar examinee, last Tuesday, but "deferred" it because Senior Justice Josue Bellosillo was absent.

Sources said Purisima, 69, who is set to retire on Oct. 28, has refused to step down and remained "steadfast" despite calls by many in the legal profession for him to either avail of an early retirement or take a terminal leave just to spare the Supreme Court from further embarrassment.

The High Court earlier had censured Purisima and withheld half of his P500,000 fee as chairman of the 1999 bar exams' committee.