midas marquez, cj sereno, and the senate

according to my facebook newsfeed, it is midas marquez, court administrator, who is leading the wear-red / sereno-resign campaign inside the supreme court.  check out this march 12 post by jovy acosta-nisperos:

Did you see a lot of people in red at the courts today?

Then you probably heard that Midas contacted courts all over the country telling them that he will visit them today, and that they should wear red for his visit. Deceptive, no? There was also innuendo that if they don’t wear red, they will lose their benefits under “the new Chief Justice.”

As court administrator of 2000 courts in charge of leaves, benefits and supplies, this Midas person is really using his position to bully judges. No wonder Sereno irks him, her decentralization reforms are really going to clip his wings.

And of course you know about the Philippine Judges Association (PJA) and some SC employees’ unions issuing statements calling for CJ Sereno’s resignation.

Well, did you know that there are a total of FIFTEEN – yep, FIFTEEN – employees’ associations in the judiciary? And that only four of them issued a resignation call? FOUR. And the boards of those four didn’t even get a vote from their members.

Did you also know that there are 1200 judges in the PJA but only 20 of them signed the PJA’s statement? It has reached a point where RTC judges are reaffirming their oath to uphold judicial independence and expressing disdain for those who try to curtail it. Have you seen that statement that RTC judges are using as their cover photo? Cool, huh?

Oh, but you have to read that post by Judge Lutero of RTC QC in PJA’s closed group. She gave them a piece of her mind. With judge-ly finesse, of course.

Wait, there’s more. MetCJAP, the association of MTC judges, has refused – with one solid voice – to join the fray. Just in case it wasn’t clear, the President of MetCJAP, Judge Leilani Grimares, changed her profile pic to one where she states her stand for judicial independence.

i remember midas, of course, when he was spokesman for the puno court, and then the corona court.  i especially remember that very gay shriek when a mic accidentally fell off the podium, lol.  i didn’t realize though that he was also court administrator, a very powerful position, and highly ranked at that —  “justice marquez” ang tawag sa kanya sa lower-house hearings where he made sereno sumbong about this and that.

dami niyang isyu against cj sereno, some of them verging on, if not downright, petty.  after googling him all day, i can see why.  he was identified with corona and when the latter was dismissed, he was replaced by ted te as spokesman.  and of course he has no chance of being promoted to associate justice, not while sereno is cj.  so it’s like he’s going for broke, so to speak?  no guts no glory?

here are some links to midas stories on the web 2012 to the present.

from Midas Marquez: Spooksperson of the Supreme Corona by ross del rosario @BeKindToUs Troll

Lawmakers are calling again on Marquez to resign … because of his ardent call of allegiance and defensive statements in support of the Chief Justice Renato Corona.

Impeachment prosecution panel spokesman Rep. Miro Quimbo said Marquez must choose between being the spokesman of Chief Justice Renato Corona or the court administrator. “Para na rin sa kapakanan ng buong SC — ayaw nga nating maapektuhan ang buong SC– magdesisyon siya. Siya ba ay magiging personal spokesman ni Corona o magpapatuloy gampanan ang makapangyarihan at sensitibong posisyon ng court administrator?” Quimbo said.

from World Bank bares Supreme Court misuse of loan for judiciary reform

The diminished internal auditing mechanism in the court was exemplified by the uncanny appointment by Corona of Jose Midas Marquez as court administrator, head of the Public Information Office, and chair of the Bids and Awards Committee of the APJR or the court’s Action Program for Judicial Reform.

…Without naming Marquez, the bank said that “this senior official, due to the combination of his appointments and functions, was the requestor of the services, the approver of the terms of reference, the end-user of the services provided by the firm, the authorizer of contract extensions, and the authorizer of payments to the firm.”

from Did Supreme Court Spokesperson Paint Himself into a Corner? 

Marquez will soon find himself in a no-win situation. Having firmly tied his fate to that of the Chief Justice; should Corona lose his impeachment trial, an Aquino-appointed replacement will likely not want Marquez around. And even if Corona keeps his job, Marquez has shown one and all that he is unfit for the job because he lacks that level of professionalism that allows him to understand that his loyalty is to the institution of the high court itself, and not to the person who happens to sit as its Chief Justice for the time being.

from The Midas Marquez touch by Ted Te

When he started speaking for the Court, it was for his former boss, Reynato Puno, for whom he served also as Chief of Staff.  When Chief Justice Puno retired, his successor, the now-removed former Chief Justice Renato C. Corona retained him to speak for the Court, on top of his now new assignment as Court Administrator. It became evident early on that he was fiercely loyal not to the Court itself, as an institution, but to one person, the then Chief Justice.

… When the smoke settled and the former Chief Justice was removed, it became a question of “when,” not “if,”  he would be relieved as spokesperson of the Court.  And it came as a surprise to very few that one of the first acts of the Court, in its special session after the removal of the former Chief Justice, was to confirm that Atty. Marquez was no longer speaking “for the Court,” as the post was coterminous with the former Chief Justice. That, by itself, was telling — that the Court itself would acknowledge that its own spokesperson was not speaking for the Court but for one man alone because of the coterminous nature of the relationship.

from Court Administrator Marquez joins nominees for SC justice 

Historically, court administrators are promoted to the SC. Court administrators, through whose office the SC exercises its administrative supervision over all lower courts in the country, who have been appointed to the SC were Senior Justice Josue Bellosillo (retired), Presbitero J. Velasco Jr., and Jose Portugal Perez (retired).

from Sereno impeachment: RCAO, JDO, and Midas Marquez

When Sereno was still associate justice, she was vocal in her criticism of Corona’s management decisions. She also once criticized Marquez for supposedly misinterpreting a court decision. Marquez stood as court spokesman during Corona’s time.

Marquez has also been nominated to be Supreme Court justice under the Duterte administration, but has yet to make the shortlist.

In 2012, when Sereno’s AO generated controversy, Senator Francis Pangilinan said in a statement that then chief justice Corona “suspended the decentralization of courts during his helm”, contrary to what Marquez claimed in his testimony.

“I cannot help but ask if this controversy stems from the OCA refusing to give up the powers it had enjoyed under former Chief Justice Renato Corona. Former Chief Justices Hilario Davide Jr. and Reynato Puno both implemented the decentralization. Why was it right then and wrong now?” Pangilinan said in a statement then.

from Sereno camp: Court administrator’s presentation ‘low blow, fake news’

Marquez appeared at the impeachment hearing at the House of Representatives on Tuesday. He said TWGs (Technical Working Groups) formed by Sereno in 2015 caused a delay in the release of benefits for retired judges and justices, and in the approval of survivorship benefit claims of spouses.

It took the committee and TWGs two years before 12 of 29 applications were approved, Marquez added.
…
Sereno’s camp first disputed that the groups were formed by the Chief Justice alone. Lacanilao pointed out the committee also consisted of Associate Justices Antonio Carpio and Presbitero Velasco Jr., and Sereno only signed the document.

… Lacanilao denied the TWGs are causing delay, saying there was only one application pending in the committee level, 79 in the Office of the Court Administrator, and around nine pending in the Supreme Court en banc.

The spokesperson slammed Marquez’s presentation as “selective,” saying he only picked five cases which probably had administrative issues — which therefore took a long time to process.

“The data [was] not complete. He didn’t say when the en banc gave it back to the committee, how long the committee worked on it, when these people applied to him,” said Lacanilao. “It was unfair, it was very unprofessional for him to do that.”

from SC records show Midas, not Sereno, sat on Mamasapano transfer request

In a statement Thursday, Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II blamed Chief Justice Sereno for the delay … in transferring the Mamasapano murder trial from Cotabato City to Metro Manila.

It’s the Office of Court Administrator (OCA) Midas Marquez, said the Supreme Court (SC) Public Information Office (PIO) on Friday, January 26.

… Citing SC records, the PIO press statement said, “Under the applicable procedure, considering the request involves the lower courts, the Office of the Chief Justice wrote an endorsement letter dated February 9, 2017 which was sent to the Court Administrator on February 13, 2017 and stamped received by the Office of the Court Administrator on February 14, 2017.

from Sereno: Marquez likely behind ‘Red Monday’ protest 

Embattled Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno believes Court Administrator Jose Midas Marquez was likely behind the “Red Monday” protest at the Supreme Court that sought her resignation.

“Marami ang nagsasabi sa akin na ganun. Marami akong nabasang report na ‘yun ang impression. Palagay ko no, oo,” she said Wednesday in a Bandila DZMM interview.
…
It was last year, she shared, that she faced mounting pressure to step down.

“Kung hindi ka magre-resign, pahihirapan namin ang buhay mo. Kung hindi ka magre-resign, ipapahiya ka namin. Sisiraan ang iyong character. Yuyurakan ang pangalan mo,” she said.

i’m not even all that crazy about cj sereno.  i was most disappointed when she did not inhibit from voting on torre de manila, considering that her husband once worked for DMCI.  and in the oral arguments i was dismayed when she pointed out how other monuments are in the midst of malls and high-rise buildings — the unsaid being, why should jose rizal deserve better?

associate justice carpio was no less dismaying:

“his (Rizal’s) dying wish was to face east but the captain of the guard said no so he died facing west.” …“Now, Rizal is still facing west. We still deny him his dying wish…”

ironically, it was associate justice teresita de castro i lauded for hitting out at the NHCP’S inefficiency and inconsistency.  it’s too bad that she went along with midas and the lower house on sereno’s impeachment.  dami rin niyang isyu against the chief justice, but the biggest, i bet, is that she will have retired by the time sereno retires, the cj being so young, which means no chance no hope no prayer of herself rising to chief justice.  unless na nga sereno is impeached by congress, or unseated by the supremes themselves via a ruling that her 2012 appointment was illegal.  or something desperate like that.

which brings me back to midas marquez, who is relatively younger.  but wait.  the internet has no data on his birthyear so i don’t know, is he maybe the same age as the CJ, and so he has no chance of making it to associate justice man lang while sereno seats?  or is he younger than sereno but simply impatient, nagatungan nga ba ng duterte diehards?

i visited his facebook page.  top post is a Duterte Kami 13-minute video of erwin tulfo, iniisa-isa ang mga kasalanan ni noynoy aquino. including, i guess, corona’s dismissal.  below that is an araw ng kalayaan video 2017 by presidential comms, and below that, this, on revenge:

Atty. Jose Midas P. Marquez
5 April 2017 ·
Never pay back evil with more evil. Do things in such a way that everyone can see you are honorable. Do all that you can to live in peace with everyone. Dear friends, never take revenge. Leave that to the righteous anger of God. For the Scriptures say, “I will take revenge; I will pay them back,” says the Lord . Instead, “If your enemies are hungry, feed them. If they are thirsty, give them something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals of shame on their heads.” Don’t let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good.
Romans 12:17‭-‬21 NLT

hmm.  if what he is alleged to be doing to unseat the CJ is not revenge, i don’t know what is.  but what appalls, if true, is that it’s like he thinks he can swing a PNoy?  oust a chief justice?  in the lower house, yes, it would look like it, though it’s certainly taking forever, but in the senate?  umm, come to think of it, i’ve seen facebook posts warning that the senators are puro bayaran.  well, whoever’s behind midas marquez must have very deep pockets.

the senate will be tested.