Negros mayor appeals Supreme Court decision disbarring him

MANILA, Philippines - A Negros Occidental mayor has asked the Supreme Court (SC) to reconsider its ruling last April disbarring him over his falsification charges against two magistrates of the high court.

In a motion he filed last June 20, Mayor Magdaleno Peña said he did not violate canons of professional and ethical conduct for lawyers and was supposedly only telling the truth in his allegations against now acting Chief Justice Antonio Carpio and Associate Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno that the SC also dismissed earlier this month.

Peña insisted that the court’s ruling in November last year dismissing his bid to collect P28.5 million in attorney’s fees from the defunct Urban Bank, predecessor of the now closed Export and Industry Bank, was falsified.

Peña, mayor of Pulupandan town in Negros Occidental, even submitted supposed new evidence that he said would prove his claim – an affidavit dated May 25, 2012 of former SC stenographer Fe Malou Castelo.

“Throughout my tenure as a stenographer with the SC, I have never experienced an instance wherein any Justice or Division, or the en banc for that matter, changed the actions taken and agreed upon during the deliberations, without having the particular case called again,” Castelo said in backing up Peña’s charges.

In its decision disbarring Peña, the SC adopted the explanations of Carpio and Sereno that it is the minutes, not the agenda such as the one presented by Peña, that is the basis of the preparation and release of a resolution. This was used to justify why the “Noted” agenda ended as “Granted” such as in the case of the Carpio resolution.