A House leader on Monday appealed to Supreme Court Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno to refrain from using the impeachment case leveled against her as an excuse to abandon efforts to weed out the alleged corruption in the judiciary, such as “TRO for sale” racket of some of its officials.
Negros Oriental Rep. Arnulfo Teves revealed that a Court of Appeals division is set to issue a temporary restraining order to block the execution of an anti-graft court order dismissing a provincial governor.
Teves alleged that a CA division is involved in the “TRO for sale scheme.’’
“The chief justice must continue to carry out her pledge to cleanse the judiciary. SC should check on allegations of TRO for sale in the Court of Appeals and other lower courts,” Teves, vice chairperson of the House committee on dangerous drugs, said as he claimed having received numerous information about corruption in the issuance of TROs.
“According to the grapevine, a governor from one province outside Luzon will soon benefit from a TRO of a dismissal order issued by an anti-graft body,” Teves added. “If this becomes a norm, then corruption in the judiciary will never stop.”
Teves said Sereno should not be distracted in pursuing her house cleaning of the judiciary being part of her advocacy despite the impeachment complaint filed against her by lawyer Larry Gadon.
Teves also lamented that despite Sereno’s anti-corruption campaign in the judiciary, “dishonesty and corruption” have continued.
“All that Chief Justice Sereno has to do is to observe the way some courts issue judicial relief such as TRO. As the top magistrate in the country, Sereno is expected to smell graft and corruption even in far away courts in Visayas and Mindanao,” Teves said.