PRESS RELEASE, 21 March 2012
Contact Person: Adrian Baccay @ 0927 4308021
Akbayan questions SC ruling reaffirming FASAP recall
Akbayan Party decries the recent Supreme Court ruling on March 13, 2012, rejecting the Motion for Reconsideration filed by the Flight Attendants and Stewards Association of the Philippines (FASAP) against the recall of the resolution of its case versus Philippine Airlines (PAL). The case is part of the impeachment case against Chief Justice Corona.
“The resolution reaffirming the Supreme Court’s earlier recall of an otherwise final and executory decision is devastating to FASAP who have awaited the finality of the favorable decision of the SC for years. The recall order and this recent decision reaffirming it snatched defeat from the jaws of victory for FASAP. I really hope that this decision has nothing to do with the testimony of FASAP President Bob Anduiza in Chief Justice Corona’s impeachment trial,” Akbayan Representative Kaka Bag-ao said.
On February 7, FASAP President Roberto “Bob” Anduiza took the Senate witness stand to prove the irregularities in the Supreme Court’s resolution that recalled the final and executory Decision favoring the flight attendants.
In his testimony for Article III of the verified impeachment complaint, Anduiza said that the Supreme Court appears to give a preferential treatment to PAL as the former required the latter to comment on a petition-letter previously sent by FASAP. But when PAL sent a letter to the Supreme Court through its counsel, Atty. Estelito Mendoza, the case was immediately docketed as a new administrative matter of the Supreme Court despite the fact FASAP was not notified of the existence of such letters. FASAP learned of the existence of the letter only after the court promulgated its resolution recalling its earlier Decision on the case.
According to Bag-ao, the FASAP v. PAL is a landmark case that may just go down the drain by setting a bad precedent for the Philippine judicial system. “With the recall forming part of our judicial system, what can stop parties or their lawyers from employing underhanded maneuverings, in the guise of mere letters or endless Motions for Reconsideration?” Bag-ao quipped.
“It is even more unfortunate that the Supreme Court has denied us the opportunity to present the testimonies of court personnel and documentary evidences which could have shed into light the active involvement of the Chief Justice in the recall of the FASAP Decision that is recently upheld by the Supreme Court,” Bag-ao said.
Bag-ao hopes that the impeachment court will consider the plight of FASAP members in their decision to convict Corona. “By promulgating a guilty verdict on the Chief Justice, somehow we will be able serve the ends of justice in favor of FASAP,” Bag-ao concluded. ###
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