No writ issued on reef – Sereno

MANILA, Philippines - Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno has denied issuing a writ of Kalikasan giving due course to a multisectoral group’s bid for higher penalties and criminal prosecution of the crew of the US Navy minesweeper USS Guardian, which ran aground on Tubbataha Reef last Jan. 17.

Sereno denied media reports through a letter sent to her fellow magistrates in the high court, a copy of which was obtained yesterday by The STAR.

“Kindly inform your justices that, contrary to some erroneous news reports that were circulated (Wednesday), the Chief Justice has not caused the issuance of a writ of Kalikasan in connection with the petition,” read the one-page letter signed by her chief of staff Ma. Lourdes Oliveros.

The letter was sent to judicial staff heads of all associate justices of the high court.

It was not clear why the Chief Justice directed her denial to the justices, a first in SC history.

SC spokesman Theodore Te echoed Sereno’s denial. He asked newspapers that ran the story to pull out the report or correct the story.

“The factual inaccuracies are serious as they attribute to the Court and its members acts that were never performed. They also create an image that is false and certainly misleading,” he claimed in a letter.

Last Wednesday, several newspapers reported that justices of the SC approved the issuance of the writ of Kalikasan as sought by groups led by Bishop Pedro Arigo of Puerto Princesa City, Palawan.

In the draft resolution furnished to members of the media by sources, the SC directed the respondents in the case – Scott Swift in his capacity as commander of the US 7th Fleet; Mark Rice, commanding officer of the USS Guardian; along with government officials led by President Aquino, the military and Cabinet members – to answer the petition within 10 days from receipt of notice.

The reports, which cited insiders, clearly stated that the writ was not yet officially released and still in the office of Sereno for approval.

Since the SC is already on recess, only Sereno could issue orders.

Media confused by SC errors

The media have been confused several times by booboos in the high court.

Citing sources, several media outfits reported last April that the SC issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) on the “aggregate time limit” rule of Commission on Elections (Comelec) on broadcast ads of candidates in the May 13 polls.

Te, however, held a press conference and said “SQA was issued – not TRO,” referring to status quo ante order. Two days later, he apologized and corrected himself.

When sought for an explanation, the SC spokesman said in a text message to reporters: “I was told it was an SQA. That the actual resolution later refers to it as TRO is something beyond my control.”

Te later admitted his mistake and explained he made an assumption from details relayed to him by a justice.

As a matter of practice, the spokesman for the high court directly gets from the chief justice the results of the SC deliberations before announcing them to the media.

It was not the first time Te made a mistake in announcing decisions of the high court.

Earlier this month, Te admitted his office made a mistake in the summary of the SC decision granting relief to 52 party-list groups disqualified by the Comelec.

He explained that the sixth parameter held that a participating party-list group may still proceed with its election bid even if its nominee was disqualified by Comelec provided that it has at least another qualified bet – not five as earlier released by the SC public information office (PIO).

Te apologized for the error he attributed to “technical problems.”

“My apologies for the guide we sent out but which we tried to correct minutes after the first guide was sent out, but was unable to do so because of technical problems. The error is mine, purely inadvertent and brought about by need to finish the summaries to aid in reporting,” he said in a statement.

The SC PIO, in that case, sent to the media three sets of summary – initial, revised and final – instead of the actual copy of the decision.

Te’s office has made blunders in other instances – during the announcement of the results of 2012 Bar examinations where they initially gave a wrong number of passers, and in the case involving a Marikina ordinance regulating fences and walls of establishments in the city where they said the petition of city government was granted when it was in fact dismissed.