EDITORIAL - Judicial housecleaning

He used to preside over corruption cases. The other day, Gregory Ong was fired by the Supreme Court as associate justice of the Sandiganbayan, the special court handling graft cases. The SC order, which was immediately implemented, stemmed from accusations of impropriety in his dismissal in 2010 of a case filed against businesswoman Janet Lim Napoles over the purchase of Kevlar helmets for the Philippine Marines.

Napoles, on trial for the pork barrel scam, allegedly paid millions to Ong for favorable decisions in his Sandiganbayan division. Pork barrel scam whistle-blowers Benhur Luy and Marina Sula told the Senate Blue Ribbon committee last year that Ong was Napoles’ “connection” in the anti-graft court’s Fourth Division, which he chaired.

An investigation conducted by the Supreme Court showed there was basis for the accusations of impropriety but insufficient evidence to prove that money changed hands. Ong can still appeal the ruling, but public opinion is mostly against him and will hamper his credibility as a magistrate in the anti-graft court in case he gets a favorable ruling.

Members of the judiciary and others in the legal profession welcomed the SC order as a step forward in cleaning up a branch of government that has been rocked by major corruption scandals in recent years, with even a chief justice ousted for inaccuracies in his official asset declaration.

President Aquino, who has made the anti-corruption campaign a lynchpin of his administration, has openly complained that the weakness of the judicial system is one of the roadblocks along his straight path or daang matuwid. Business groups and other sectors have long complained not only about the snail’s pace of Philippine justice but also of the vulnerability of magistrates to corruption.

The ouster of Ong has raised hopes that the judiciary will be undergoing a sustained housecleaning. The officials supervising the judiciary should not dash those hopes.