Female Batangas judge wants to meet pals in Friendster account

A female judge in Batangas may find herself in trouble, just like the policewoman who is undergoing summary dismissal proceedings for posing in the Internet with her bra, after a lawmaker discovered that the jurist has an account in Friendster. 

Lone Nueva Ecija Rep. Carlos Padilla showed reporters a picture of 43-year-old Judge Ma. Cecilia Austria, whom he accused, along with Court of Appeals Justice Sixto Marella, of conspiring with two commercial banks to take over the Steel Corp. of the Philippines.

The independent lawmaker found it queer that anybody can just browse on friendster.com/39687546 and see for themselves a sexy pose of a member of the judiciary, like Austria (nicknamed Sesil), who claims she is “interested in friends.”

“Nakakagulat talaga,” said Padilla. Lawyer Ferdinand Topacio of SCP, who also has a wife-judge in Cavite, said magistrates should not engage themselves in such activities, especially since this exposes them to the public.

“It is just unseemly for a judge. A judge should refrain from undue socializing, like this, for soliciting acquaintances in the Net. That’s provided for under the Canon of Judicial Ethics,” Topacio told The STAR.

Topacio thanked Padilla for taking the cudgels on their plight, and also thanked Zamboanga del Sur Rep. Antonio Cerilles for supporting their cause, particularly because they felt Austria and Marella have been unfair to them for placing SCP under receivership.

In his Feb. 22 privilege speech, entitled “Judicial Conspiracy to Kill,” Padilla lamented that SCP was placed under receivership by the sala of Austria “despite the company’s diligent payment of interests to its creditors.”

Topacio likewise insisted that the magistrates treated them unfairly. He cited the case of Marella, where four of the cases they filed in the appellate court mysteriously fell on his sala, after several justices inhibited themselves.

“This is far too unusual. Napaka-suwerte niya naman. We consulted statisticians and they said the four cases have a .000008 percent chances of being on the same justice,” the SCP lawyer said. He lamented that Marella refused to recuse himself.

Topacio, nevertheless, showed reporters who attended the weekly Serye forum in Quezon City that their case already has a precedent in the case of Pryce, where the Supreme Court reversed on Feb. 4 Marella’s ruling in another similar yet separate corporate case.

Padilla said the creditor-banks are using the judiciary to ensure that majority control of SCP will be handed over to the banks within the year. “Even as restructuring negotiations were being conducted in good faith, bad faith on the part of the banks sneaked in.”

“What the bank wanted was a debt-to-equity conversion that would diminish the true value of Steel Corp., such that its owners would end up with only 10 percent of the corporation, and 90 percent of the ownership would be in the hands of the bank,” he said.