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A NEWLY appointed commissioner in the Commission on Elections (Comelec)
yesterday denounced a smear campaign being waged by certain
unscrupulous sectors out to scuttle his appointment to the poll
body.
Certain parties have peddled misleading and
false information about Commissioner Leonardo Leonida even before he
was appointed to the poll body. “Media was fed false information
that there was an administrative case against me at the Supreme
Court,” Leonida said in a statement.
“This is a big, black lie,” Leonida said. To
disprove this, Leonida, former Regional Trial Court (RTC) judge of
Branch 27 in Sta. Cruz, Laguna, secured a clearance certificate from
the Supreme Court dated June 23, 2008, which certified that he had
no pending administrative case to date.” The clearance was issued
by Vener Pimentel, office in charge of the docket and clearance
division, Office of the Court Administrator of the Supreme Court.
Leonida said he was being unduly criticized for
being “an unknown.” He bewailed attempts to downgrade his
professional competence and readiness to serve at the Comelec
because he does not possess the top billing and star value of a
Manny Pacquiao and other sports heroes, movie and entertainment
stars.
The new commissioner said he went through the
entire search process like all others who applied for the position.
He said he submitted his application to the Parish Pastoral Council
for Responsible Voting.
Leonida also bewailed attempts to smear his
appointment by using an admonition that was given to him by the
Supreme Court over a case that he had filed against eight erring
court employees under his sala for the issuance of spurious and
forged bail bonds and release orders in 2004 while he was on leave.
To set the records straight, Leonida said it was
during his stint as presiding judge of RTC Branch 27 in Sta. Cruz,
Laguna, when he sought the investigation of four employees of
RTC Branch 27 by the National Bureau of Investigation and the filing
of charges against them because it was a very serious case that
caused the illegal release of detained drug offenders obtained
through spurious release orders with my forged signature,”
Leonida explained.
“I filed charges against the erring court
employees in my branch with the Supreme Court. Justice Conrado M.
Molina was tasked to conduct the investigation and whose findings
were used by the Supreme Court to rule on the case.”
The Supreme Court found the four employees of
RTC Branch 27 Sta. Cruz, Laguna—legal researcher Alegria Ramos,
stenographers Irma Agawin and Ma. Veronica Nequinto guilty of
gross neglect of duty and imposed a six-month suspension on them.
Court aide Mauro Callado was also found guilty of simple neglect of
duty and was imposed a two-month suspension as penalty.
Commissioner Leonida appealed to the media to be
more circumspect and prudent in using the records of the forgery
case in the Supreme Court that he filed against employees under his
branch. “The facts of the case are being milked dry, distorted and
unduly played up to smear my name and reputation and scuttle my
posting at the Comelec,” he said.
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