Pulupandan Mayor Magdaleno Peña yesterday said he has asked the Supreme Court to dismiss its earlier order for his disbarment and to reinstate his name in the roll of attorneys.

Peña, in his motion for reconsideration filed June 20, a copy of which he furnished the DAILY STAR yesterday, asked that his disbarment be dismissed for lack of merit, alleging that it was a clear attempt to silence him against what he claimed to be anomalies committed by certain members of the SC.

In a decision dated April 17 the SC had ordered the disbarment of Peña for accusations he had hurled against two members of the High Court.

The SC ordered Peña’s name stricken from the roll of attorneys for “violating Canons, 8, 10 and 11 of the Code of Professional Responsibility and for failing to give due respect to the courts and his fellow lawyers”.

In a complaint he filed in November last year before the SC committee on ethics and ethical standards, Peña accused Justice Antonio Carpio of falsifying a Nov. 13, 2002 ruling of the tribunal’s First Division to favor Urban Bank, and Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno of “protecting” Carpio by refusing to inhibit herself from the case.

The case stemmed from a case involving his collection for services he rendered to Urban Bank and for reimbursement of costs in connection with an ejectment case involving several commercial establishments along Roxas Boulevard in Manila.

Peña claimed he should be paid P28.5 million, but the SC only granted P3 million as payment.

In its decision, the SC said that Peña’s “conduct, demeanour and language with respect to his cause of action…tends to undermine the integrity and reputation of the judiciary, as well as inflict unfounded accusations against fellow lawyers.”

But Peña, in his motion for reconsideration, said it is clear that he was “disbarred for merely telling the truth in accordance with the lawyer’s oath to do no falsehood, nor consent to the doing of any in court.

In his MR, Peña said that, as an officer of the court, it was his duty to point out a blatant and atrocious anomaly committed within the hallowed halls of the highest court after having caught red-handed some of its members “aggressively engaged in a cover-up so massive that same may even be worthy of impeachment proceedings.”

Peña said his disbarment was a clear attempt to silence him, despite the fact that, prior to the issuance of the April 17, 2012 decision, he was already exonerated by the Office of the Bard Confidant for making statements in jest against a member of the SC and uttered during a purely private conversation between lawyers.

His disbarment was also premised on his alleged “Submission of Falsified Internal Court Documents”, but Peña, in his MR, said the document was a faithful and true reproduction of the agenda owned by the former Chief Justice Hilario Davide.

Pena said he is willing to face the consequence of “exposing some glaring anomalies in the judicial system with the end in view that something must be done to weed the judiciary of the unscrupulous by revealing the venalities and shenanigans to public awareness.”

If the SC continues to turn a blind eye to the anomaly he unearthed, Peña said “its members shall themselves be guilty of violating the same oath as lawyers by “consenting to falsehood and the doing, of any in court.”

Peña said he cannot seriously hope to be reinstated as a member of the Philippine bar, as long as the members of the SC , “as an ‘old boys club’, continue to adhere to misplaced professional courtesy by protecting one of their own, rather than the truth.”

In his MR, Peña also said he begs the SC to take a closer look at “his crusade, as such may aid in the cleaning of its own august halls”.*CPG

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