Press Release
April 14, 2008

KIKO ON GOING SOLO RE SC JUSTICES' INHIBITION ON NERI CASE...

As the Supreme Court readies to tackle in an en banc session on Tuesday, the Motion for Reconsideration filed by the Senate last week on the Neri case, Senate Majority Leader and Independent senator Kiko Pangilinan today renewed his call for three Supreme Court Justices to inhibit themselves from the said case saying "The need for impartiality is paramount and perceived lack of it is ground to inhibit."

While still in the process of getting a consensus with fellow senators on filing for inhibition, Kiko said "At this point, as an officer of the Senate I am caught between my primary duty to push for an institutional response and pursuing the inhibition motion based on my personal stand. It cannot simply be a setting aside of the sentiments of the majority of the senators in order to pursue my own position. There are institutional considerations. Whether or not I subordinate my personal position to that of the Senate as an institution, is a dilemma that needs to be resolved."

"Faced with this, we are in the thick of last minute consultations before a decision is made. If a compromise position amongst the senators can be made, well and good. It appears however that the hour is getting late as a decision must be made by Friday," Kiko admitted.

"Still I appeal to the three SC justices concerned to seriously consider voluntarily inhibiting themselves even without a formal motion for inhibition so as to spare the SC from the allegations of bias and partiality that have been repeatedly articulated in the media through news reports and commentaries by columnists," Kiko said.

Justice Arturo Brion who served as PGMA's labor secretary was only appointed post haste to the court in March 17, in the homestretch of the debates on the Neri case, Justice Prebistero Velasco on the other hand admitted to playing golf with Neri only after he participated in the oral arguments while Justice Renato Corona's wife is a presidential appointee in Camp John Hay Corporation and signed a manifesto expressing unqualified support for the President during the time of the NBN controversy.

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