The Supreme Court, acting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal, has denied the plea of former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. for inhibition of Associate Justice Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa from handling his election protest against Vice President Leni Robredo.
In an Aug. 28, 2018 resolution, the PET dismissed the motion of Marcos seeking for inhibition of Caguioa for lack of basis and “sternly warned” the former lawmaker and his lawyers that “any unfounded and inappropriate accusation made in the future will be dealt with more severely.”
The PET ruled that Caguioa “has been nothing but impartial” in his conduct of matters involved in the Marcos’ protest against Robredo because all decisions have been reached through a majority vote of the Court en banc.
“Amid baseless allegations of delay, the Tribunal has given these no serious consideration as it knows that the proceedings in the Protest have, in fact, been pushed forward with utmost dispatch despite numerous pending incidents arising from it,” the PET resolution stated.
The PET described the motion as a “mere scrap of paper” when it resolved to deny the motion for inhibition of Caguiao for “utter lack of merit.”
Marcos had sought for recusal of Caguioa his pending electoral protest against the vice president, citing the justice’s “fraternal relations” with his former classmate, former President Benigno Aquino III.
Former senator also alleged that Caguioa’s wife is an “ardent supporter” of Robredo.
However, the PET ruled that Marcos allegations are “empty” imputation that “cannot form basis for voluntary inhibition” under the Internal Rules of the Supreme Court.
According to the PET, the argument that that Aquino appointed Caguioa to the SC and that the two belonged to the same political party does “not automatically mean” that the latter is biased in favor of Robredo and against Marcos.
“Parenthetically, it may be worthy to note that Justice Caguioa and protestant’s spouse, Atty. Liza Araneta-Marcos were classmates in Ateneo Law School. Hence, the protestant’s insistence on equating bias on the mere fact that Justice Caguioa and President Aquino were classmates holds no water,” the poll tribunal stressed.
“Protestant’s narration may be good reading as a conspiracy theory and may even be fodder for discourse in social media, but his theories when used as a ground to request for an inhibition of a Member of this Tribunal, must transcend fiction,” it said.
Prior to the motion for inhibition, Caguioa had asked the PET members to re-raffle the management of the Marcos-Robredo election protest.
But the PET unanimously denied his request.