SC approves Purisima probe

In a move that could possibly raise eyebrows, the Supreme Court has decided to investigate one of its former justices who got involved in a 1999 Bar examination scandal – more than a month after that justice retired.

Former Justice Fidel Purisima, who stepped down on Oct. 28, was censured early this year by the High Tribunal for not inhibiting himself from administering the 1999 exams even though he knew a nephew was taking the exam.

To the shock of his colleagues, Purisima also admitted that he allowed his daughter Dalla Ponce de Leon and her husband to input the questions in the computer – a move that his colleagues feared could have compromised the security of the test questions.

Aside from censure, the Supreme Court penalized Purisima by slashing by half his P500,000 fee as chairman of the Bar committee.

Shortly after the scandal erupted last March, former Senate President Jovito Salonga and former Justice Minister Sedfrey Ordoñez filed a letter of request asking for an inquiry into the scandal and, if necessary, sanctions against Purisima.

More than a month after Purisima retired, the court referred the request to the Special Study Group on Bar Examinations Reforms headed by former justice Ameurfina Melencio-Herrera.

"In view of the established rules and guidelines where the encoding of the questions for the bar examinations shall be held as the security measures that should be undertaken in connection herewith, we resolve to refer the matter to the special study group for report and recommendation," the Supreme Court said in an en banc resolution.

Herrera’s panel will then propose measures on how the Bar chairman should handle the annual examinations to prevent a repeat of the incident.

"Our action is not punitive but rather remedial," Justice Artemio Panganiban explained to the STAR when asked why the decision came late, considering that Purisima could no longer be sanctioned by an institution to which he is no longer connected.

Purisima denied speculations that he leaked the test questions to his nephew, Mark Anthony Purisima, as well as risked the integrity of the examinations.

He claimed that he found out too late that the young Purisima was taking the test but still decided to keep mum about it. Purisima’s nephew failed the exam.

When the scandal broke out, the young Purisima’s test scores were withheld by the Supreme Court to determine if he had cheated. It was found that he had not.

Because of the episode, Purisima retired without any fanfare and without a traditional valedictory court decision to be penned by him – a first in the history of the high tribunal. This was made upon his request, however, to avoid media attention.– Delon Porcalla