Gadon won’t give up in ousting Leonen from SC

MAVERICK lawyer and good governance advocate, Atty. Larry Gadon, is not about to give up in having Supreme Court Associate Justice Marvic Leonen ousted from the bench thru impeachment, vowing to file another case after the May 9, 2022 elections under a “more receptive House leadership.”

It can be recalled that last December 7, 2020, journalist Edwin Cordevilla, secretary general of the Filipino League of Advocates For Good Government (FLAGG), lodged an impeachment complaint against Leonen before the Office of the House Secretary General, with Gadon as counsel.

Cordevilla, in his complaint, accused Leonen of culpable violation of the Constitution for supposedly failing to dispose of at least 37 cases within 24 months, which he said, is a violation of Section 16, Article III of the Constitution which mandates the speedy disposition of cases.

Cordevilla also accused Leonen of sitting on the cases pending before the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal (HRET), again in violation of the Constitution.

Also, Cordevilla accused the magistrate of “betrayal of public trust” for Leonen’s failure to file his ‘SALN’ (Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Networth) for 15 years. The filing of the SALN is mandatory for anyone entering government service.

It was also her failure to file her SALN for 3 consecutive years that former Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno was impeached by Congress in August 2017, with Gadon as complainant.

That impeachment became the basis for the ‘quo warranto’ petition filed by the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) against Sereno before the Supreme Court that led to her removal as chief justice the following year, May 11, 2018.

In the case of Leonen, however, the House Committee on Justice– composed of nearly the same members of Congress that impeached Sereno, Gadon noted– threw out last May 28, 2021, Cordevilla’s complaint for his alleged “lack of personal knowledge” on the allegations he raised against Leonen and for attaching ‘xerox copies’ and news clippings as basis.

In a talk with Pinoy Exposé, Gadon said he cannot “understand” why the House Committee on Justice “departed from the established Sereno processes where xerox copies attached in the complaint were relied on by the lawmakers in summoning government officials to validate the allegations against Sereno.

“It is very obvious the lawmakers are kowtowing with what the Speaker (Lord Allan Velasco) wants,” Gadon said.

“Impeachment is unlike ordinary cases in regular courts where the complainant has the burden to produce original documents, unless they are in the possession of the adverse party as an exception,” he added.

“An impeachment case is sui generis and does not adhere strictly to the rules of court as the primary objective is to know the truth and for this principle the House can use its plenary and inherent powers to issue subpoenas like what it did to Sereno case.

Gadon averred further that Speaker Lord Allan Velasco exercise his influence over the lawmakers to dump Cordevilla’s complaint, noting that Velasco’s father, Marinduque governor, Presbiterio Velasco, is a former colleague of Leonen in court.

“We will try filing another impeachment case after a one-year ban hopefully under a new and more receptive House leadership,” Gadon said.