PJA rivals: We don’t know Arlene

MANILA, Philippines - The three judges who vied for the presidency of the Philippine Judges Association (PJA) have denied involvement in the controversy on influence peddling in the judiciary allegedly perpetrated by a certain “Ma’am Arlene.”

Newly elected PJA president and Quezon City Regional Trial Court Judge Ralph Lee and his rivals Makati RTC Judge Rommel Baybay and Marikina RTC Judge Felix Reyes all said they have nothing to do with the allegations, following the initial investigation of the Office of the Court Administrator that had traced the controversy to the PJA elections.

The three judges submitted their respective comments to the Supreme Court (SC) last week and none of them admitted to igniting the controversy, an insider privy to the SC investigation told The STAR yesterday.

In their comments now with the special probe committee chaired by Associate Justice Marvic Leonen, all of them said they do not know any Ma’am Arlene and that they also do not know where the allegations started.

But earlier, Court Administrator Jose Midas Marquez said that allegations involving Ma’am Arlene had something to do with the PJA elections.

“Apparently, there is one candidate accused of being supported by a certain Ma’am Arlene who is said to wield influence in the courts. So it started as a smear campaign against someone aspiring for the presidency of the PJA until it was blown out of proportion,” Marquez explained.

In an interview on ABS-CBN’s Umagang Kay Ganda, Lee said the issue linking Ma’am Arlene to the recent PJA elections is part of a smear campaign against him.

“(Reports said) I was supposedly helped by this Ma’am Arlene as she was the one who paid for the rooms (during the recent elections). I don’t know anyone named Ma’am Arlene,” Lee said in Filipino, adding that he does not know anyone involved in case fixing in the judiciary.

The judge also stressed that there was no need for Ma’am Arlene to pay for the accommodations of the judges who attended the elections since they had the budget to cover the expenses.

He refused to name the people that were supposedly behind the smear campaign due to the pending investigation on the issue.

“I don’t know what’s on their mind. (The issue) affected my credibility, as well as that of the PJA,” Lee added.

The judge suspects that the issue could be part of a coordinated move to destroy the credibility of the entire government, noting that there are groups attacking the legislative and executive branches of government.

Before this issue on Ma’am Arlene, the public was focused on the reported misuse of the Priority Development Assistance Fund in Congress and the Disbursement Acceleration Program in Malacañang.

Initial probe by the Office of the Court Administrator found that there are three Ma’am Arlenes in the judiciary who are known for fixing cases in the Court of Appeals (CA) and RTCs. One is a clerk in the CA, the other is former employee in a Manila RTC and another is a prominent staff member at the Manila City Hall.

De Lima: Arlene Lerma being probed Justice

Secretary Leila de Lima yesterday confirmed that Arlene Lerma, the woman who reportedly left the country last week, is among those being investigated by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).