"Totally baseless, scurrilous"

“Totally baseless, scurrilous”

Reposted from ZAMBOANGA TODAY ONLINE

Saturday, 13 July 2013 00:00

LIFE’S INSPIRATIONS: “…`Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you’…” (Jesus Christ, our God and Savior, in Matthew 7:1-2, the Holy Bible).

“TOTALLY BASELESS, SCURILLOUS”: “Totally without basis, and aimed solely to besmirch and vilify the reputation of Associate Justice Presbitero Velasco”, is to me an apt description of the accusations against Velasco which were made in a press conference by Regina Ongsiako Reyes, a congressional bet in the lone district of Marinduque who was not allowed both by the Commission on Elections and the Supreme Court to assume her seat in the House of Representatives on the ground that she is an American citizen.

Why am I saying this? Simply because it is clear that Reyes failed to give any iota of proof or any substantial evidentiary detail that would prove, as she charged in her press conference, that Justice Velasco exerted influence among his colleagues in the high court to get a favorable ruling from them for his son, Lord Allan Jay, to enable him to replace Reyes as the winning congressional candidate in Marinduque during the May 2012 elections.

It would appear, even to the most ordinary man on the street, that all that Reyes purveyed to the press were mere accusations, innuendoes and speculations, totally unsubstantiated and sorely lacking in facts that would prove that Justice Velasco approached any Supreme Court justice to vote to confirm a Comelec ruling disqualifying her as a candidate. 

REYES MUST APOLOGIZE TO SC: Considering the seriousness of her allegations, Reyes had the burden to show that indeed, the Supreme Court ruling which not only favored Lord Allan Jay but also upheld an earlier decision by the Commission on Elections disqualifying her as a candidate on account of her being an American citizen, was the result of Justice Velasco’s lobbying with his fellow justices.

Otherwise, if she cannot prove this, she must apologize posthaste not only to Justice Velasco and Lord Allan Jay, but to the other justices of the high court as well who signed the ruling affirming her lack of qualification to be a candidate during the last election, because she is a citizen of the United States who cannot run in any election in the Philippines.

If we come down right to it, it cannot be denied that Reyes’ charge---that the decision saying she is an American citizen was the product of manipulation---unfairly tainted not only Justice Velasco, but more so the other justices who voted against her to uphold the decision of the Comelec.

RESPECTING SC DECISIONS: The fact is that, the case of Reyes could not have even reached the Supreme Court if she herself did not file a petition with the tribunal, to question the Comelec decision against her candidacy. Clearly, it was Reyes who sought the intervention of the highest court of the land in the hope of seeking a reversal of the earlier Comelec decision against her.

Reyes was, therefore, in duty bound to respect whatever decision the Supreme Court will issue in her case. In the first place, she knew beforehand that the father of her political opponent, her rival for the lone congressional seat of Marinduque, is a magistrate in that court, so she has no right to be using this family relationship between Lord Allan Jay and Justice Velasco as a ground for discrediting the Supreme Court ruling against her.

Then, again, Reyes knew, or ought to have known, that any case brought to the high court is subjected to a collegial scrutiny, with each justice participating in the deliberations and in the voting, and it is totally foolish for anyone to be presuming that one justice could impose on another for a particular vote. What is more, Velasco did not even participate in the case of Reyes, precisely because his own son was involved, so how could he have pressured anyone?

Email: batasmauricio@yahoo.com, mmauriciojr111@gmail.com.