Bersamin charges Leonen of violating SC internal rules

THE most junior magistrate of the Supreme Court (SC), Justice Marvic Leonen, is now in danger of being penalized by the high court, after SC Justice Lucas Bersamin accused him of violating the internal rules of the tribunal by disclosing the magistrates’ confidential deliberations in the case of granting bail to Senator Juan Ponce Enrile.

In a five-page rejoinder submitted to the SC en banc for the August 25, 2015 agenda, Bersamin accused Leonen of overstepping his bounds and having lack of respect for the majority ruling. On Tuesday, August 18, the High Tribunal voted 8-4 in favor of Enrile’s petition for bail. The 17-page majority opinion’s main basis for the grant of bail is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Leonen, Associate Justices Antonio Carpio and Estela Perlas-Bernabe and Sereno dissented from the majority ruling in the Enrile case.