Solgen asks UP Board of Regents for Leonen’s SALNs
MANILA, Philippines — The Office of the Solicitor General has asked the University of the Philippines’ highest governing body to allow the release of Supreme Court Associate Justice Marvic Leonen’s wealth declarations from his time as a faculty member of the state university.
The Philippine Collegian, UP’s student publication, first reported this after it discovered discussions on the OSG’s request in a poorly redacted portion of the minutes of the UP Board of Regents’ November 26, 2020 meeting.
During that meeting, the board’s chairperson, Prospero De Vera, told the board that he received a letter from the OSG asking that they overturn the UP Diliman’s Human Resource Development Office’s decision to deny the release of Leonen’s statements of assets, liabilities and net worth.
The board did not take any action on the OSG’s request and instead scheduled a special meeting to discuss the legal aspects of the issue and for them to be briefed by the UP’s legal affairs office.
Freedom of information?
During the board’s discussions, De Vera, who also serves as chairperson of the Commission on Higher Education, said the board has jurisdiction over the request “since the OSG is asking for the policy of the university insofar as release of the SALN of faculty members is concerned.”
He added that the OSG’s appeal may be considered as a request under the “freedom of information law,” although no such law exists.
He then requested that Vice President for Legal Affairs Hector Danny Uy provide the board a legal opinion on the matter.
Faculty regent Ramon Guillermo then raised the SC’s rejection of the OSG’s request for Leonen’s SALNs and requested that this be also included in Uy’s legal opinion.
Uy then said that he was informed that the remedy to the rejection of the OSG’s request is for it to be approved by the SC.
UP President and board co-chairperson Danilo Concepcion clarified that the SC resolution on SALNs states that the wealth declarations of sitting judges and justices may only be released upon the approval of the court.
What has UP done before?
According to the Philippine Collegian, UP has declined to release SALNs of former faculty members who became SC justices in at least two instances.
Former UP President Alfredo Pascual deferred in 2013 to the HRDO and the SC the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism requested for the university’s copy of Leonen’s SALNs.
In 2017, UP Diliman rejected a request from a Manila Times columnist to release the SALNs of a Supreme Court justice due to data privacy concerns.
Leonen taught at the UP College of Law beginning in 1989. He then served as Vice President for Legal Affairs in 2005 before becoming law dean from 2008 to 2011.
Impeachment proceedings
He went on to become SC justice in November 2012 after being appointed by then President Benigno Aquino III.
The 58-year-old magistrate has 12 more years to serve in the high court before reaching the mandatory age of retirement in 2032.
However, his tenure could be cut short should the impeachment complaint against him prosper.
The complaint, lodged by Edwin Cordevilla of the Filipino League of Advocates for Good Government, alleged that Leonen failed to file his SALNs when he was a UP professor, that he failed to decide on cases quickly, and that he "almost always takes sides against the current administration."
Leonen is a known dissenter in the SC which is now dominated by appointees of President Rodrigo Duterte.
Cordevilla’s complaint was endorsed by Rep. Angelo Barba (Ilocos Norte), a cousin of former Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. whose electoral protest against Vice President Leni Robredo was unanimously junked by the SC in a decision penned by Leonen.
The House justice committee is set to hold its first hearing on the complaint on May 27, where it is expected to determine whether it is sufficient in form and in substance.
The hunt for Leonen’s SALNs to possibly oust him from his position is not without precedent.
Maria Lourdes Sereno was ousted in 2018 as chief justice by her own colleagues at the SC over her missing SALNs when she was teaching at UP Law.
In 2012, the Senate convicted then Chief Justice Renato Corona for his failure to disclose his SALNs.
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