Philippine Airlines (PAL) lawyer Estelito Mendoza wrote the Supreme Court that the Second Division erred in deciding for flight attendants and stewards; it was the Special Third Division that was the proper body to handle the case.
“How can a mere letter suffice as a pleading in a Supreme Court case?” Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago snapped. The Court’s own rules thumb down any second motion for reconsideration filed without prior permission.
Justices, nonetheless, scrambled to reconsider a “final decision” on the basis of a letter. “You are not allowed to talk to a Supreme Court justice. …What credibility would be left… (if the Court) declares in one breath that this is final… then entertains an ordinary letter?”
Only if judgment was “legally erroneous,” “patently unjust” and “worked irreparable damage,” is a reversal permitted, Santiago added. “Labintatlong taon iyang (Fasap case) nakabinbin,” she pointed out. (Contrast that with this week’s US Federal Court’s sentencing of former hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam to 11 years in jail, plus a $10-million fine, for insider trading. It took less than two years to bring the case from trial to prison.)
Assume the Fasap decision was issued by the wrong division, that’s a technicality, Santiago said. Will that overturn 13 years of litigation? The Court’s record “is spotty,” Santiago noted. The Court should “take remedial steps” on its rules.
“I am angry because… I fear that the citizenry might turn its back on the bulwark of our civil liberties. If the Court loses its credibility, it will be impossible to regain it in a number of years.”
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