SC probes Ma’am Arlene

MANILA, Philippines - The Supreme Court (SC) has started an investigation into allegations that the judiciary has its own version of Janet Lim-Napoles, the woman at the center of the pork barrel scam involving lawmakers.

Court Administrator Jose Midas Marquez, who supervises appellate courts and all trial courts in the country, said his office would get to the bottom of reports about a certain “Ma’am Arlene” who reportedly fixes cases in the Court of Appeals (CA) and regional trial courts on behalf of her wealthy client-litigants.

“Our office has been monitoring these reports as early as the first week of September and conducting a discreet investigation,” Marquez said.

He said they have yet to identify “Ma’am Arlene” and her supposed beneficiaries in the judiciary.

So far the probe has pointed to a battle among groups of judges to control the Philippine Judges Association (PJA) as a possible source of the reports, Marquez said.

“It appears that these are related to the recently concluded elections of the PJA,” he said.

Even before the PJA elections, Marquez said his office had issued a circular reiterating the guidelines governing elections for judges’ associations, “particularly the prohibited acts and practices.”

Marquez said judges who vied for the PJA presidency have been asked to explain the controversy.

In the pork barrel scam, a complaint for serious illegal detention against Napoles by one of her relatives, Benhur Luy, led to the disclosure of an alleged multibillion-peso scheme to funnel billions of pesos of the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) or congressional pork barrel to personal accounts using bogus non-government organizations.

Luy, reportedly suspected by Napoles to be striking out on his own with a similar scheme, is now a state witness along with several former employees of Napoles.

The PJA elections were concluded last Wednesday with Quezon City regional trial court (RTC) Judge Ralph Lee elected as president.

Lee was chosen over Makati City RTC Judge Rommel Baybay and Marikina RTC Judge Felix Reyes.

Former PJA president Franklin Demonteverde of the Bacolod Regional Trial Court said he knew nothing about Arlene.

The STAR columnist Jarius Bondoc exposed the alleged influence-peddling activities of Arlene.

“She throws birthday bashes for CA justices and trial court judges, and bankrolls their family junkets abroad. She is allegedly the magistrates’ go-to girl if they need to give an offspring an expensive graduation or wedding gift,” Bondoc wrote.

Bondoc said the woman “is notorious as a fixer of cases, with investigators, prosecutors and magistrates, mostly in Metro Manila.”

He said Arlene paid for the food during a recent convention of trial judges in the Visayas.

“At the dining halls, she would hop from table to table, loudly proclaiming that food and drinks were on her. She also announced, for everyone at the tables to hear, to give her their spouses’ birth dates so she could gift them with expensive, branded bags. Some attendees unabashedly mentioned to her their wish to travel with their families to Hong Kong or Macau,” Bondoc wrote.

Arlene reportedly gives justices’ and judges’ wives expensive Hermes Birkin bags as gifts. A Birkin bag reportedly costs at least P200,000.

Bondoc did not provide the full name of Arlene, but court sources said she is known even to court employees, adding she is a native of Iloilo and related to a suspected Chinese smuggler of flour.

Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno earlier called on whistle-blowers to come forward to bolster allegations of corruption in the judiciary.

Sereno said charges against members of the judiciary should be backed by solid evidence, lamenting that talks of corruption have become rife in legal circles, although these were made “in hushed tones and through blind items.”

SC urged: Identify Arlene

Lawmakers led by Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. called on the SC to identify Arlene.

Belmonte said he hopes judiciary personnel who know about the alleged influence-peddler would speak up.

Rep. Sherwin Tugna of the party-list group Citizens Battle Against Corruption said it is common knowledge that corruption exists not only in the executive and legislative branches of government but also in the judiciary.

“The legislative and executive departments are undergoing cleansing. It should also be the case in the judiciary. The people’s faith in the justice system should be restored. There will be no rule of law if the people do not trust the judiciary, if there are operators like this Arlene subverting the system,” he said.

Tugna, who is a House deputy majority leader, said it should not be difficult for the SC to get rid of its Napoles and other judicial decision fixers.

“I am sure she is known to judges and even justices and court personnel. They know the fixers,” he added.

Cavite Rep. Elpidio Barzaga Jr. said the judiciary would not have the moral ascendancy to judge corruption in the legislative and executive branches of government if it is itself saddled with corruption problems.

He said among the three branches, it is the judiciary that should be held to stricter standards of honesty, integrity and ethical conduct, because it is the final arbiter of disputes and legal issues.

Yesterday, the SC held its second hearing of oral arguments on the constitutionality of the PDAF, which at least one justice has described as “unconstitutional, on its face.”

Rep. Neri Colmenares of Bayan Muna said it would be good for the judiciary if whistle-blowers come out and expose corruption among justices, judges and court personnel.

“After all, corruption is also prevalent in the judiciary,” he said.

Gabriela Rep. Luz Ilagan said the report that the judiciary has its version of a Napoles only shows that corruption in the bureaucracy is systemic.

“All those who know about conspiracy between Madam Arlene and the justices should come out in the open,” she said. – With Jess Diaz, Danny Dangcalan