Del Castillo extends sick leave

MANILA, Philippines - Supreme Court (SC) Justice Mariano del Castillo has filed for extended sick leave but may report for work next week after undergoing a heart bypass operation.

Members of Del Castillo’s staff said he filed yesterday a two-day extension of his nine-day sick leave that lapsed last Wednesday.

Del Castillo could report to work next week “depending on his doctor’s advice,” they added.

In a letter, Del Castillo said he was ready to report to work, but his doctors had advised him to rest for a few more days.

Last March 12, Del Castillo filed his sick leave when his wellness leave had lapsed, to continue recovering from the surgery.

SC spokesman Midas Marquez denied reports that Del Castillo has already tendered his resignation or filed for early retirement after the House pf Representatives justice committee voted 38-10 last Feb. 22 to recommend his impeachment.

“Those are just rumors because he is just on leave,” he said.

Marquez said Del Castillo’s heart bypass operation was a success.

“He underwent bypass several years ago, but apparently the bypass was not very successful because the arteries – except for one – remained clumped, therefore there is also some degree of urgency that he undergo another bypass, another procedure,” he said.

The operation was originally set last January but was moved a month later, Marquez said.

Text messages circulated last week that Del Castillo has already resigned allegedly to evade an impeachment trial and after his fraternity brothers in Aquila Legis had prodded him to do so.

Del Castillo is facing impeachment in the House of Representatives over allegations of plagiarism, twisting of cited materials and gross neglect for the unanimous SC ruling he penned in October 2010 dismissing the petition of over 70 Filipino women abused during World War II to compel the government to support their demands for official apology and other reparations from Japan.

Marquez said the SC had ruled in October 2010 that the allegations of plagiarism, twisting of cited materials and gross neglect against Del Castillo lacked merit.

“It’s unfortunate that they seemed not to have taken consideration of that decision by the court,” he said.

“The mistake of Justice Del Castillo’s researcher is that, after the justice had decided what texts, passages and citations were to be retained, including those from (authors), and when she was already cleaning up her work and deleting all subject tags, she unintentionally deleted the footnotes that went with such tags – with disastrous effect,” read the SC decision.

“On occasions judges and justices have mistakenly cited the wrong sources, failed to use quotation marks, inadvertently omitted necessary information from footnotes or endnotes. But these do not, in every case, amount to misconduct. Only errors that are tainted with fraud, corruption or malice are subject of disciplinary action.”