The House committee on justice chaired by Rep. Reynaldo Umali (2nd District, Oriental Mindoro) on Tuesday heard the testimony of Court Administrator Jose Midas Marquez who shared that his January 2017 letter to Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno urging the Supreme Court (SC) en banc to make a definitive ruling on 29 survivorship pension applications that have been pending for over two years went unanswered.
Marquez stood as witness for the committee, which discussed one of the allegations by Atty. Lorenzo Gadon that says Sereno is at the root of delayed action on the numerous petitions for retirement and survivorship benefits of justices and judges and their spouses. Gadon alleged that the technical working group created by Sereno, established through SC Memorandum Order 43-2015, caused the delay.
The committee is determining whether Gadon’s impeachment complaint has probable cause.
Marquez revealed that applications for retirement and survivorship benefits filed in the beginning of October 2015 were held in abeyance. No application was acted upon from October 2015 until 6 November 2017—a period of over two years.
Following requests in late 2016 to expedite the application process, Marquez penned a letter to Sereno in January 2017, urging the Chief Justice and the Court en banc to take more immediate action and make a definitive ruling.
“Considering it has been more than a year since the Court’s last action on the pending applications for survivorship pension, and since majority of the surviving spouses are already beyond 80 years old, there’s a compelling need to expedite action on these 29 applications,” Marquez said in his letter. He went on to state that the surviving spouses are also not in perfect health and may no longer be able to avail themselves of the survivorship benefits.
Marquez said his letter went unanswered.
He further said that on August 8, 2017, a week following Gadon’s press conference on July 29, 2017 in which Gadon stated that one of the articles of impeachment was the delay in the retirement and survivorship benefits, the Court en banc first heard the issue.
“It was first included in the agenda of the Court en banc on August 8, and then nag-deliberation ulit sila noong August 22, at tapos nagdeliberation noong August 29. And finally, in just a month, nakapaglabas ang Court en banc ng decision,” Marquez said.
The decision of the Court en banc was promulgated on September 19, 2017. The Court ruled that the benefits of RA 9946 extended to the surviving spouses of magistrates who died before February 11, 2010.
“Thus, there is no question that the benefits under R.A. No. 9946 extend to those who died before February 11, 2010. This would include the survivorship benefits in favor of surviving spouses of such deceased justices and judges. The Court sees no compelling reason at this point to revisit this ruling,” the Court en banc’s decision read.
Of the 29 applications pending for over two years, 12 were subsequently approved by the Court.
According to Marquez, RA 910, as amended in 2010 by RA 9946, mandates that the surviving legitimate spouse of a deceased justice or judge will receive the judge or justice’s retirement benefits. A retroactivity clause also provided that the benefits will also be granted to those who have retired before the passage of the Act. In 271 instances, the SC further provided that the surviving spouse will receive benefits not starting from the date of the deceased magistrate’s death, but from the date the law took effect on 11 February 2010.
However, Marquez said there were those in the SC who argued that spouses of magistrates who passed away before 2010 should not receive benefits as provided by RA 9946.
This conflicting view led to the establishment of the Special Committee on Retirement and Civil Service Benefits. Under the committee, two TWGs were created. Marquez furnished documents showing the creation and approval by Sereno on December 22, 2015 of the first TWG, which focused on screening applications. The second TWG was the legal TWG. Asked on who created the legal TWG, Marquez said “malamang po si CJ Sereno din po,” though Marquez said he did not have similar paperwork for the second TWG.
Before the creation of the committee and the TWGs, the process only necessitated that the surviving spouse who wanted to receive benefits to file an application with the Office of the Court Administrator (OCA). The application would then be reviewed by a dedicated office in the OCA. Once the requirements submitted by the surviving spouse were complete, the OCA would recommend to the SC en banc whether to grant or deny the application. As evidenced by past cases involving optional retirement, disability retirement, death during service and pension in compulsory retirement, Marquez showed that the referral to Court en banc until date of approval usually lasted two to three weeks.
The process changed following the creation of the special committee. After the Office of Clerk En Banc received the recommendation of OCA, the special committee would then review the applications they were passed to the Court en banc.
“Dahil nagtatag ng isang committee at dalawang TWGs under that committee, ano pong nangyari? All applications received by the Office of the Clerk of Court En Banc beginning October 2015 were held in abeyance,” Marquez explained. (CONGRESS-PR)
