SCHOOL OF Social Sciences (SOSS) Secretary-Treasurer (Sec-Treas) Marvin Lagonera has been charged with six separate impeachment cases by the Ateneo Student Judicial Court (SJC) Prosecutor’s Office on December 2.

On December 5, The GUIDON received a copy of the 42-page complaint from the said office, headed by Chief Prosecutor Clyde Maramba. The complaint is a consolidated file of all six impeachment cases.

In the complaint, Lagonera has been accused of violating the 2005 Constitution of the Undergraduate Students of the Ateneo de Manila Loyola Schools (LS), also known as the LS Undergraduate Constitution, based on the following counts:

• Appointment of Block and Course representatives without due process
• Appointment of Executive Officers (EOs) and Central Board (CB) representatives without due process
• Usurping the School Board (SB) Chairpersonship
• Illegal creation of the Committee System, a structure that undermines the roles and responsibilities of the EOs and the Executive Committee (Execom)
• Corruption, related to offering a public office position to a person, with the condition the person changes political affiliation to the Sec-Treas’ party
• Failing to keep the records of the SB transparent and falsification of official SB documents in the course of the investigation

According to the complaint, the prosecution team assembled on November 8 and began auditing the SOSS SB on November 13. This is in response to unverified reports received by the Prosecutor’s Office over the last semester that “certain officials” of the SOSS SB were in violation of the LS Undergraduate Constitution.

Lagonera received a physical copy of the complaint on December 4. However, he was not given copies of the appendices and affidavits the prosecution mentioned in the complaint.

According to the official court rules of the SJC, an accused is given 72 hours to petition a motion upon receiving the complaint.

At 12:32 PM on December 6, Lagonera filed a “Consolidated Motion for a Bill of Particulars and for an Extension of the Deadline for Reply and/or Filing of Motions.”

In the motion, Lagonera requested that the SJC give him another five days “for the filing of replies and other motions regarding the complaints filed against me.”

“This is to give myself and my counsel ample time to prepare our defense, given the expected high volume of documents pertaining to the case,” said Lagonera in the motion.

Lagonera also requested that he and his counsel be given copies of all the official documents and evidences used by the prosecution in the investigation.

According to the motion, Lagonera’s lead counsel is Andre Miko Alazas.

In an interview with The GUIDON, Magistrate for Internal Affairs Leo Abot clarified that while Lagonera’s consolidated motion is an official response, it “does not constitute the entirety of the possible responses he can give the Court.”

“It is simply a motion requesting a Bill of Particulars and an extension of the deadlines for reply and filing of motions, [and] it does not include his direct reply to the charges against him,” Abot said.

Later that day, Crusada posted an official statement in support of Lagonera, calling the impeachment complaint “a consolidation of rumors, half-truths and blatant distortion of the facts.”

On December 7, the SJC released a decision regarding Lagonera’s consolidated motion.

Regarding the request for a Bill of Particulars, the SJC decided to give Lagonera five files, including the following: An annotated version of the 2005 Sanggunian Constitution, a copy of the 2007 SJC Rules of Court, a copy of the 2011 SJC Code of Internal Procedures (CIP), a copy of the 2013 Sanggunian CB CIP and a copy of an Affidavit of Service submitted by the SJC’s Clerk-of-Court Paolo Sta. Isabel.

However, the SJC deemed it unnecessary to provide Lagonera with copies of the evidences cited in the complaint.

In Lagonera’s motion, his counsel cited a Supreme Court case, namely the case of Mercado vs. People, which they deemed sufficient evidence to support their motion.

Upon closer inspection of the Supreme Court case, however, the SJC discovered that evidence was only handed over because “these documents referred to a past decision, [and] not items of evidence.”

The SJC also believed that “the consolidated impeachment complaint filed by the [SJC Prosecutor’s Office], a comprehensive 42-page document and delivered to the respondent as stated in the facts, satisfies [Lagonera’s] right to know the full scope of all the allegations lodged against him.”

Meanwhile, the SJC did not grant Lagonera’s request for a deadline extension because this would “[violate] the Constitution.”

However, an amendment in the SJC Rules of Court states that “any item of the SJC Procedural Rules may be suspended for any period of time not to exceed a semester by a two-thirds vote of the Magistrates.”

By virtue of this rule, the SJC decided that “in the spirit of fairness,” it will suspend the part of the Rules of Court that would violate the constitution.

The SJC then only granted Lagonera a deadline extension of two days, moving his deadline from December 7 at 3:20 PM to December 9 at 3:20 PM.

“[Lagonera] must be able to [respond], if he wishes to do so, on or before December 9, 2013, 3:20PM,” the statement said.

Meanwhile, in the event that Lagonera does not respond directly to the charges filed by the prosecution, the SJC magistrates will decide solely based on the complaint if the cases filed against the accused hold merit in court.

Should the magistrates accept the validity of any of the claims, Lagonera’s hearing shall be held no later than seven days after the announcement of the decision.

The prosecutors are expecting the final decision of the magistrates on Wednesday, December 11.

Lagonera has refused to comment on the issue for now but has agreed to be interviewed by The GUIDON next week.

Unconstitutional appointments

In the first two cases filed against him, Lagonera was accused of making unconstitutional appointments to fill the positions left vacant during the 2013 Sanggunian General Elections, and the 2013 Sanggunian Freshmen and Special Elections.

The alleged illegal appointments include the following positions: junior SOSS CB representative, junior SOSS EO, senior SOSS CB representative, senior SOSS EO, freshman Block C1, F1, I1 and II block representatives, sophomore Block A, A3, F, G, I1, K and Y2 block representatives, junior AB Comm, AB Eco-H, AB MEco, AB PoS-MPM, AB/MA PoS and BS Psy course representatives, and senior AB Eu and AB MEco course representatives.

However, the prosecution only based its complaint on “legal information, testimony and evidence” obtained from nine out of the 27 appointed SOSS Sanggunian officers who cooperated with the investigation.

The LS Undergraduate Constitution says that “vacancies that occur in the Central Board and School Boards before the election of freshman officers, with the exception of the positions of Sanggunian President and School Board Chairpersons, shall be filled via special elections to be held simultaneously with the Freshman Year Officers Elections.”

While the constitution does not indicate how vacancies are to be handled after the election of freshman officers, the prosecution “overrule the possibility” of Lagonera “personally appointing due to necessary means even for the benefit of the School Board.”

Furthermore, as per the constitution, it is not within the power of Lagonera as sec-treas to make appointments for any unfilled Sanggunian positions.

Usurping the chairpersonship

Lagonera has also been charged with usurping the vacant SOSS chairperson position.

According to the complaint, Lagonera identified himself as chairperson in a post in the SOSS Sanggunian Facebook group on August 13. He “claimed that the secretary-treasurer can assume the title of chairperson during special elections.”

The complaint further said that Lagonera “continued to operate under the assumption of his role as acting chairperson” in the following days.

Lagonera also allegedly assumed the position in official documents.

The constitution says as that as sec-treas, Lagonera is only allowed to assume responsibilities of the chairperson if the chairperson is absent or incapacitated. Moreover, Lagonera is only allowed to assume the chairpersonship in the event that the office is permanently vacated.

Because no chairperson was elected for this school year, the position should be left vacant until the next general elections, according to a declaratory relief released by the SJC on February 22.

Illegal committee system restructuring

Lagonera has also been charged with the illegal creation of a new committee system in SOSS Sanggunian this year without the approval of the SB Execom.

According to the LS Undergraduate Constitution, the SB Execom is composed of the following: A Chairperson, a sec-treas, and an EO from each year level.

According to the filed complaint, any officer who wishes to restructure the committee system in the SB must have a proposal approved by the Execom members first.

The constitution says that only the Execom members have the responsibility of “formulating and implementing policies, stands, resolutions and programs concerning their constituency.”

However, Lagonera reportedly implemented a new committee system without the approval of the Execom.

“Executive officers have attested that they were never consulted on the committee system before it was implemented; neither did the Executive Officers vote on the implementation of the committee system,” said the complaint

The complaint added that in his recruitment pitch, Lagonera claimed that “to be a Committee Chair is greater than being an Executive Officer for this school year.

However, based on the official organizational structure of the Execom, the EOs have higher jurisdiction over committee heads.

The prosecution claimed it can provide evidences against Lagonera for this case based on correspondence with five committee heads appointed by the accused.

Corruption claim

Lagonera has also been charged with graft and corruption “by showing preference towards members of the Christian Union for Socialist and Democratic Advancement (Crusada) in the appointment for Committee Chairpersonship.”

Lagonera is currently the party chancellor of Crusada, the only accredited political party in the Ateneo.

According to the official complaint, Lagonera allegedly offered a student the position of head of the Public Information Committee on August 14 on the condition that she cut her ties with her current political formation and join Crusada.

The complaint said that on August 15, however, Lagonera retracted the conditional statement. Two days later, the student assumed the position without changing her political affiliation.

According to the prosecutors, “any form of preference and/or patronage should have legal and authorized basis not showing favor to private parties, such as Crusada.” Otherwise, the complaint stated, it is considered to be a form of graft and corruption in accordance to Republic Act Number 3019, otherwise known as the “Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.”

Mismanagement, incompetence, fraud

Lastly, Lagonera is charged with allegedly tampering with official SOSS SB documents in the course of the investigation and for failure for keeping the SOSS SB transparent.

On November 13, the day the prosecution begun its investigation, Lagonera was asked to submit all files related to SOSS activities, including, but not limited to, the following: Documents such as resolutions and public releases, minutes of all meetings and events of the SOSS Execom and SB, and SB official budgets.

The prosecution also asked Lagonera for access to SOSS SB-related online accounts and groups.

According to the complaint, Lagonera agreed to comply with the request. Both parties agreed on a 3:30 PM deadline on November 15.

However, Lagonera was unable to meet this deadline. He allegedly had “difficulty in accomplishing the requested task.”

He only submitted copies of the minutes of the SOSS SB and Execom meetings, as well as other documents, from November 19 and 20 to the prosecution

According to the complaint, the prosecution discovered that the public had no access to several of the SOSS SB documentation after analyzing Lagonera’s files.

The prosecution also asked for the unedited files of the official minute-taker of the SOSS SB meetings. According to the complaint, there were alleged inconsistencies between the files submitted by the official minute-taker and the files submitted by Lagonera.

According to the complaint, by “failing to accurately document and publicize all SOSS SB proceedings, Mr. Lagonera is encroaching upon his constituent’s right to know and act upon all activities and decisions of the SOSS Sanggunian.”

The complaint also said that the “incomplete and unreliable documentation of the SOSS SB proceedings affect the capability of the SOSS Sanggu officials to serve their constituents and to consult with them on matters concerning the entire school.”

The prosecution said that Lagonera’s inability to submit a complete documentation of SOSS SB proceedings is indicative of “mismanagement” and “incompetence.”

Furthermore, Lagonera should be impeached for his alleged “modification” of the documents and for committing “fraud” in the course of his official duties.

According to the complaint, the prosecution “beseeches the Honorable Magistrates to impeach Marvin Lagonera, Secretary-Treasurer of the School of Social Sciences School Board, on the grounds established.”

UPDATED: 11:00 PM, December 7, 2013.