FOLLOWING THE issues on election transparency, Magistrates of the Ateneo Student Judicial Court (SJC) petitioned for the resignation of current SJC Chief Magistrate Generoso S. Jacinto after failing to “uphold the values of transparency and accountability” of the Court.
The document calling for Jacinto’s resignation was posted on the SJC’s official Facebook page on October 14 and was signed by current SJC Magistrates, Jonn Angel Aranas, Ma. Ayesha Nicole Del Rosario, Antonio Miguel Lagura, and Nicole Anne Mempin.
Transparency issues regarding the release of pertinent court documents were raised by the Union of Students for the Advancement of Democracy (USAD) Premier Lanz Espacio on September 13 through a statement on his personal Facebook account.
Espacio pointed out that the Court’s failure to release important documents for public perusal regarding decisions and resolutions for constitutional provisions and resolutions placed “the whole electoral process in jeopardy.”
In the posted document, the Magistrates put Jacinto’s leadership into question after “several incidents of delayed and questionable promulgation of public documents” during the recently-ended election period as well as other infringements outside of it.
Chief Magistrate’s powers and responsibilities
In the posted document, SJC petitioners outlined contradictory actions of Jacinto as the Chief Magistrate based on the 2016 Undergraduate Constitution and the SJC Code of Internal Procedures.
According to SJC, Jacinto violated the Constitution after appointing an interim Chief Magistrate during his absence.
Furthermore, they claimed that the backlog in the resolution of the cases were caused by Jacinto’s inability to hold en bancs (bench sessions) and refusal to appoint an acting Chief Magistrate in his stead.
Regarding the limits of the Chief Magistrate’s power, the petitioners pointed out that Jacinto has “overstepped his boundaries” after performing actions without their approval and disregarding a majority decision.
These include the release of official statements on the Court’s behalf, the editing of the SJC’s official Facebook page and the placement Karl Corro as the head of the Office of Legal Research solely on Jacinto’s own accord.
“[Jacinto’s] control of information dissemination has been detrimental to the Court,” the petitioners explain on the document.
The petitioners explain that the aforementioned actions “have negatively affected the internal function of the Court in such a way that prevents it from fulfilling its duties and political exercises.”
Based on the outlined list of violations, the Magistrates determined that Jacinto is no longer fit to be the leader of the Court after failing to “align with the missions and principles that the court wishes to uphold” and has therefore called for his resignation.
The Magistrates have officially called for the official release of Jacinto’s letter of resignation within 24 hours of the documents posting along with the turnover of his administrative control of official Court accounts to them.
Additionally, they have expressed the refusal to docket or accept petitions from Jacinto.
“If this call for resignation does not receive the desired reply within the time previously stated, the undersigned shall cooperate with any petitions or impose other legal remedies,” they concluded.
Editor’s Note: This article was edited for clarity.
