"All this man asks from the Supreme Court is to hear his case."
I first saw him in a press briefing sometime in 2017. He was flanked by two flamboyant lawyers and he was presented as a possible witness to the then brewing impeachment case against Maria Lourdes Sereno.
A lawyer himself, Eligio Mallari presented voluminous documents he himself prepared, regarding a case of land dispute with the Philippine National Bank which had dragged for 37 years now.
According to one of the lawyers who was with him then, Mallari’s case would have profound implications on the continuous possession of qualifications of Sereno as chief judge and member of the highest court.
For a while, the case have long been ruled in his favor, Mallari alleged that PNB, in 2009, managed to insert a lis pendens clause on the title which means the property is still under litigation, which prevented him from selling the property he acquired in 1980.
With the case now in the SC, Mallari said PNB wrote Sereno on Feb. 8, 2013, and from then on, the case stagnated.
Mallari insisted that Sereno should have included the PNB letter in the agenda, either the Supreme Court en banc or the First Division, which she chairs, so it could be discussed by the other Justices.
According to Mallari’s counsel, that is highly irregular as when a lawyer writes to the Supreme Court and the case stays pending, that constitutes a serious misconduct. And when a Chief Justice does not divulge this to his or her peers in the Supreme Court much less agenda this for deliberation, he or she may be held to account under the Constitution for an impeachable offense, the counsel added.
While the impeachment case they have filed against Sereno had been dismissed by the House of Representatives for insufficiency in form, Mallari and his counsel then said they will forward all of Mallari’s evidence to Larry Gadon, another complainant in Sereno's impeachment case, so it could be presented during the trial at the Senate.
However, even if their complaint was not dismissed, there was no chance his case would be deliberated in the impeachment court as Sereno was ousted from office, her appointment as Chief Justice voided from the beginning.
Sereno has long been gone from the Supreme Court. Mallari and his lawyers have gone separate ways, the latter appointed to some government positions. But Mallari, he is still waging his battle by his lonesome.
But still, two chief justices after Sereno, Mallari’s case has yet to be heard by the high court.
While Alex Magno in his column states that one of the reasons for Sereno’s downfall was her sloppy record-keeping, this could probably still holds true as she had already been replaced a long time ago, as evidenced in the case of Mallari.
Could this be attributed to what Magno alleges, to the operations of a cabal of clerks and assistants form a powerful syndicate that is able to preempt the justices themselves?
Magno claims he has personally reviewed documents showing how a clerk at the Supreme Court released “quotations” from a decision that does not exist.
If not that, then what is holding the SC justices from hearing Mallari’s case for the last seven years?
The property involved here consists only of six hundred square meters located in Pampanga, not even in prime Metro Manila location. Mallari says he acquired this property through his labor.
If I’m not mistaken, the man is already in his 70s or 80s. All he wants is to retire peacefully on his earnings, for him to be restored as owner of the disputed property, which he insists he has lawfully acquired.
And all he asks from the Supreme Court is to hear his case and let him present his evidence and arguments.
