MANILA – For the first time in the country’s judicial history, the Philippine Supreme Court (SC) imposed a lifetime ban to practice law on one of its retired members for gross misconduct.
The stiff penalty was imposed on retired SC associate justice Ruben Reyes who was found guilty by his former peers for leaking a decision on an election protest involving the citizenship of a member of the House of Representatives, which had yet to be promulgated.
In addition to the ban, eight of the 15-member High Court also affirmed its earlier decision to fine Reyes the equivalent of $10,000 as well as perpetual disqualification from holding public office for violating his oath as a lawyer as well as the Code of Professional Responsibility.
Reyes stepped down from the High Court on December 18, 2008 when he reached the mandatory retirement age of 70 on January 3, 2009.
Earlier, Reyes asked the SC to reconsider its decision which penalized him with the $10,000 fine and disqualification from public office during his lifetime.
Aside from rejecting his petition for lack of merit, the SC decided to ban him for life in the practice of his profession, which is considered as unprecedented and a first in the country’s judicial history.
The case against Reyes resulted from a petition filed before the SC to disqualify Congresswoman Jocelyn Limkaichong of Negros Oriental province in the Visayas because she was a Chinese, not a Filipino, citizen.
The petition was filed by Olivia Paras, the wife of former congressman Jerome Paras, who lost to Limkaichong in the May 2007 elections.
Reyes, who was assigned to handle the case, wrote a draft decision disqualifying Limkaichong and proclaiming Paras as the election winner.
However, before the decision could be officially promulgated, a copy of the decision was leaked to media, which forced the SC to create a special committee to investigate the scandal.
The committee reported that in its findings, Reyes himself leaked a photocopy of the draft decision he had written and circulated it to the other justices for their signature.
In its decision, the High Court said it was saddened to impose sanctions on Reyes who rose from the ranks and devoted the best 35 years of his life to government service.
But, at the same time, the SC stressed it was mindful of the seriousness and gravity of the misconduct of Reyes, as well as the basic need to prevent a possible recurrence of such misconduct.
It emphasized: “The image of the court is inescapably etched in the conduct and actuations of those who compose it and who, in turn, are judged according to the public perception of accountability, responsibility and morality.â€
In this light, the SC said court officials have the unqualified and invariable duty to be living examples of uprightness in the performance of official functions to preserve the good name and standing of the judiciary in the community.
For this reason, the High Court emphasized it should be iron-clad in enforcing the rule on strict confidentiality of resolutions and decisions which have yet to be promulgated.
On March 22, 2000, the High Court censured and fined then SC associate justice Fidel Purisima $5,000 for not disclosing that his nephew, the son of his eldest brother, was one of the candidates who took the tests for lawyers,
At that time, the SC pointed out that Purisima headed the committee that handled the tests for lawyers in 1999.
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