No retirement rites for Morales

Manila, Philippines - Associate Justice Conchita Carpio-Morales, whom President Aquino is reportedly eyeing to be the next ombudsman, retired yesterday without the traditional ceremony at the Supreme Court (SC).

SC spokesman Midas Marquez said the formal ceremony was cancelled upon request of Carpio-Morales herself.

She did not give a reason to the committee assigned to prepare the rites, he added.

Justice Minerva Gonzaga-Reyes also waived her retirement ceremonies in March 2002, Marquez said.

However, the traditional awarding of tokens of judicial service was held during the testimonial dinner at the Hotel Sofitel Philippine Plaza.

Chief Justice Renato Corona did not attend the event since he was expected to arrive before midnight after attending a conference for chief justices of different nations in South Korea.

Carpio-Morales administered the oath of office to the President last year after he opposed the midnight appointment of Corona.

Carpio-Morales, who officially retires on Sunday when she turns 70, is vying for the post of ombudsman.

She is set to face the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) on June 23 during public interview of all 27 candidates for the post.

Carpio-Morales was nominated by the UP Law Alumni Association, Transparency International Philippines and Women Lawyers Association of the Philippines.

Her nomination was opposed by former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, former justice secretary Raul Gonzalez, and former ombudsman Aniano Desierto.

It was earlier reported that Aquino had offered the ombudsman post to Carpio-Morales when they attended an occasion with retired chief justice Artemio Panganiban.

Aquino wrote a note to Morales asking if she wanted to become the next ombudsman.

Morales, according to the source, sent Aquino a reply note: “If Chief Justice Panganiban will endorse me.”

Carpio-Morales wrote the majority decision in the SC ruling last February that dismissed the petition of Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez seeking to stop the House of Representatives committee on justice from proceeding with the consolidated impeachment complaints against her.

Carpio-Morales was admitted to the Bar in 1969 after finishing law at the University of the Philippines.

She was appointed to the SC on Sept. 3, 2002 after an eight-year stint as associate justice of the Court of Appeals (CA).

She was a trial court judge from 1983 to 1994 and was special assistant at the Department of Justice from 1971 to 1983.

Carpio-Morales is leaving the SC after writing rulings on two big cases - one allowing live coverage of the Maguindanao massacre trial, and the other dismissing the petition to again indict Sen. Panfilo Lacson in the killings of publicist Salvador Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito in 2000.

Meanwhile, the JBC has reopened the application and nomination for the position to be left vacant by the retirement of Sandiganbayan presiding Justice Edilberto Sandoval on Monday.

JBC members said it was anticipating questions on the nominations of Sandiganbayan associate justices Gregory Ong and Teresita Diaz-Baldos.

The SC fined Ong P15,000 for misconduct after being charged by Assistant Special Prosecutor Rohermia Jamsani-Rodriguez with deciding a case on his own without consulting the two other justices of the 4th division of the anti-graft court.

Ong had been appointed by former President Arroyo to the SC, but his appointment was returned by the SC to Malacañang over questions of citizenship.

The SC eventually ruled that Ong is a natural-born Filipino citizen.

Diaz-Baldos is facing criminal charges in the Department of Justice for approving the controversial plea-bargaining agreement with former military comptroller Carlos Garcia.

The other six candidates are: Sandiganbayan Associate Justices Francisco Villaruz and Efren de la Cruz, Deputy Court Administrator Nimfa Vilches, lawyer Tomas Cabili, Benguet Regional Trial Court Judge Danilo Camacho and Manila Regional Trial Court Judge Pampilo Silvino Jr.

‘Victim of injustice’

Meanwhile, the JBC received yesterday another opposition to the bid of Carpio-Morales to become ombudsman.

In a two-page letter obtained by The STAR, Rosita Tan Paragas said she became “a victim of injustice” when Carpio-Morales reversed an already final SC ruling that granted her damage claims for her illegal dismissal from Citibank in September 1997.

“Under her watch, and by stroke of her pen, an already final and executory ruling of the Supreme Court in my favor was unceremoniously resurrected and the rulings of the National Labor Relations Commission and Court of Appeals were unjustifiably reversed,” she said.

“Justice Carpio-Morales violated the rules of procedures, ignored pieces of evidence and joined a Goliath in trampling on a hapless David like me.”

Records show the CA and NLRC upheld Paragas’ claims for separation pay amounting to one month salary for every year of service and retirement benefits.

In September 2003, the SC junked Citibank’s appeal and affirmed the same decision in January 2004.

However, in 2006 Carpio-Morales issued a resolution and reversed the supposedly final SC ruling.

Paragas appealed to the eight members of the council that vets nominees for the ombudsman to consider her case, which she said demonstrates the justice’s “lack of independence, fairness and justice.”

It was the seventh opposition filed so far against Carpio-Morales.