"Lawyer Larry Gadon says three years are missing from Justice Leonen SALN records."
Supreme Court Associate Justice Marvic Leonen’s move to withdraw the Show Cause Order he issued against Solicitor General Jose Calida and Manila Times reporter Jomar Canlas only validates lawyer Larry Gadon’s position that Leonen has no case against Calida and Canlas.
In journalistic parlance, “nakuryente.”
Citing inside sources, a Manila Times story published last November 24 said Leonen backtracked and withdrew the Show Cause Order he issued against the two after the en banc ruled to revise the draft decision of Leonen on the order for indirect contempt against Calida and Canlas.
Last week, in reaction to the Show Cause Order issued by Leonen, Gadon pointed out that Canlas and Calida could not have violated any legal ethics as “Reflection” the supposed leaked document which was the basis for the news article the Manila Times reporter wrote, was not an official court document.
The document which Leonen wrote in July 2017, at a time when he still not appointed yet as ponente of the case, according to Gadon, was actually meant to allegedly to influence other Supreme Court Justices for them to dismiss the election protest filed by former Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr.
“The withdrawal of the show cause order against Solgen Calida and journalist Jomar Canlas shows that the ‘Reflection’ letter of AJ Marivic Leonen which was distributed to the SC Justices did not form part of the records of the case as he was not the ponente of the BBM PET protest at that time (June 2017),” Gadon stressed.
As Leonen was not the ponente, Gadon said the "reflections" letter was an instrument aimed at exerting undue influence and pressure on the other justices as it calls for the outright dismissal of the case.
The lawyer says that since it was not part of the official records of the case, its disclosure cannot be deemed as a leakage of confidential documents. This is very much different from the case of AJ Ruben Reyes, as what he allegedly leaked was a draft decision of the Supreme Court.
“Marivic Leonen in fact should be questioned and sanctioned for pre-empting the ponente and for influencing bias against BBM among the minds of other justices,” Gadon says.
And once Gadon starts heating up, there’s no stopping him. The lawyer, who was instrumental in invalidating lawyer Ma. Lourdes Sereno’s appointment as chief justice, won’t hesitate to lambast Leonen describing him as “incompetent, lazy and biased which should not be the traits of a member of the highest court of the land.” His case backlog presently stands at 82.
“Marivic Leonen is not qualified to become AJ of the SC. He cannot even qualify as a municipal trial court judge, according to Gadon, as he has no judiciary work experience nor an equivalent career in government service.”
“He was just rammed into the Supreme Court by Nonoy Aquino,” says Gadon. Veteran journalist Diego Cagahastian says this is “a reward for brokering the MILF deal in Malaysia regarding the junked Comprehensive Agreement on Bangsamoro.
Well, now that Leonen’s “offensive” has been grounded, maybe it would be best for him to focus on preparing for his legal battle outside of the cases he had been sitting on – I mean handling – including the Marcos case. Gadon appears serious in pursuing a quo warranto case against him for his alleged non-filing of his Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth when he was still employed as a faculty member of the University of the Philippines. This is the same offense which cost Sereno her appointment.
Gadon confidently declares that three years are missing from Leonen's SALN records in UP. Now this one does not look like “kuryente.”
