What’s happening to the Supreme Court?

What’s happening to our justice system and to the Supreme Court? Strange things are happening in the highest court of the land. Here is one very strange case.

Two years ago, on Jan. 6, 2012, I wrote in this column about a case which has languished in the Court of Appeals for more than 10 years because 11 justices refused to handle it when it was assigned to them through raffles.

On May 4, 2001 (note the year, 2001; it is now 2014), Licerio Antiporda III, after a trial of six years, was convicted by Judge Teresa Soriano of the Manila Regional Trial Court of triple homicide and one count of frustrated murder for an election-related killing in Buguey, Cagayan.

On Jan. 22, 2002, then Court of Appeals Associate Justice Bienvenido Reyes (now an associate justice of the Supreme Court) affirmed the RTC decision. But five days later Reyes, for some strange reason, recalled the decision, claiming that he was not the ponente and that his job was only to complete the records. He endorsed the case for a reraffle.

The case was reraffled not once but 16 times (repeat, 16 times) because the brave justices to which it was assigned, one after another, inhibited themselves from the case for reasons they did not explain.

Finally, on Jan. 17, 2012, or 10 years after Justice Reyes recalled his decision, the Court of Appeals affirmed the RTC decision convicting Antiporda. Antiporda filed a motion for reconsideration which was flatly denied 14 days later.

As expected, the case was appealed to the Supreme Court which promptly affirmed the decision. On July 12, 2012, the Second Division of the Supreme Court dismissed Antiporda’s motion for reconsideration “for failure to show any reversible error in the assailed judgment.”

Antiporda filed a second motion for reconsideration which was, strangely, granted, something the high court rarely does. Most bizarre in this case was the issuance by the Supreme Court, in July 2013, of a resolution which:

1. gave due course to the second motion for reconsideration;

2. reinstated the petition and required the respondent, the government in this case, to submit its comment within 10 days; and

3. issued a Status Quo Ante Order, thereby reinstating Antiporda’s bail bond, thus preventing the implementation of the warrant of arrest issued by the Court of Appeals, following its final decision on the case.

This resolution, which defies logic and jurisprudence, was penned by Supreme Court Associate Justice Bienvenido Reyes, the former Court of Appeals justice who affirmed Antiporda’s conviction, but five days later recalled it.

The high tribunal very recently affirmed the denial of bail to former Batangas Gov. Jose Leviste after he was convicted of homicide. Antiporda has been convicted of three counts of homicide and one count of frustrated murder, yet he is strutting around like a peacock, courtesy of Supreme Court Associate Justice Reyes.

One interesting question being asked—and which Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno should look into in detail—is how the second motion for reconsideration landed on the lap of Justice Reyes.

Also very recently, the Supreme Court denied a second motion for reconsideration (MR) filed by labor arbiter Ariel Cadiente Santos who has been sentenced to jail for following an order of the Court itself to implement a decision of his predecessor reinstating a dismissed waiter and the payment of all his back salaries and allowances that amounted to only P135,000. The tribunal did not even look at the facts of the case but flatly denied the second MR on a technicality.

During all the years that he evaded prison and successfully delayed the resolution of his case, Antiporda managed to get elected as vice mayor and later as mayor of Buguey. He is reportedly lording it over in his town and menacing his political enemies.

But justice may finally catch up with Antiporda.

On Jan. 20, 2014, a certain Joey Cabeza signed an affidavit confirming his participation in the murder of RTC Judge Andres

Cipriano on May 18, 2010, and pointed to Antiporda as the mastermind. Cabeza admitted serving as the lookout for two associates who gunned down the judge in front of Saint Patrick Hotel in Aparri, Cagayan.

How Antiporda will squeeze himself out of this new case would be interesting. Cabeza volunteered to reveal the names of those involved in the crime after a failed attempt on his life.

Who were the people Antiporda has been accused of gunning down almost 20 years ago?

Then a young son of Mayor Licerio Antiporda Jr. of Buguey, Cagayan, Antiporda allegedly shot and killed Edwin Cusit, Edwin Malonzo and Ben Magdayao at a precinct in Barangay San Isidro, Buguey, on the election day of May 1995. His father was running for reelection then. How he managed to evade the clutches of the law and make the wheels of justice move very, very slowly is a reflection of our flawed justice system.

* * *

After a failed experiment on rock bands—trying to duplicate the success of Hard Rock Café in Makati—Manila Hotel will go back to lounge music at its Tap Room. Featured singer on Feb. 26, Wednesday, is Aliw Awardee Margaux Salcedo who will be back fresh from being a judge in the Asia’s Best Restaurants contest. Margaux is a food columnist of the Inquirer.

* * *

KAPIHAN NOTES: Guests at this morning’s Kapihan sa Manila at the Diamond Hotel: Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada and Vice Mayor Isko Moreno.