SC junks complaint vs Carpio, Sereno

Manila, Philippines -  The Supreme Court (SC) has dismissed a complaint against acting Chief Justice Antonio Carpio and Associate Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno filed by Mayor Magdaleno Peña of Pulupandan, Negros Occidental.

In a resolution promulgated during a special session last June 13, the SC junked for lack of merit the charges of falsification against the two justices.

The charges were filed by Peña in connection with his bid to collect P28.5 million in attorney’s fees from the defunct Urban Bank, predecessor of the insolvent Export and Industry Bank that was recently placed under receivership by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

The Court disbarred Peña, also a lawyer, last April for violating canons of professional and ethical conduct for lawyers over his allegations against Carpio and Sereno.

In the administrative ruling released yesterday, the SC held that the charges were “purely conjectural” and had “no extrinsic factual evidence to support it.”

The Court held that Peña’s allegations were already addressed and debunked in an earlier resolution dated Oct. 19, 2011.

The ruling was per curiam, meaning it was jointly written by the justices during deliberations and did not have a single ponencia or writer.

Records showed that a Makati regional trial court ordered the bank to pay P28.5 million to Peña as agent’s compensation, attorney’s fees, reimbursement of expenses, exemplary damages, and costs of suit.

The bank appealed before the Court of Appeals (CA), but Peña was able to convince the RTC to execute its decision, thus the case was elevated to the SC.

In November last year, the SC issued a ruling penned by Justice Sereno dismissing his claim and awarding him only P3 million as reimbursement for expenses and P1.5 million as compensation for his services.

He then filed a complaint against Carpio before the Office of the Chief Justice for allegedly falsifying a Nov. 13, 2002 ruling of the tribunal’s First Division to favor Urban Bank.

This case involved the controversial auction of 85 condominium units in Makati City owned by the bank that he earlier represented.

Peña also accused Sereno of “protecting” Carpio by refusing to inhibit from the active case despite her closeness to the latter.

Peña is the estranged husband of former actress Marie Roxanne “Plinky” Recto. He had lost a bitter custody battle over their seven-year-old son last year.